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SUmcritan  jltdigtoujS  Efaftecjar 


FRANCIS  WAYLAND 


BY 


JAMES  O.  MURRAY 

DEAN  AND  PBOVESSOB  OF  BNOLISH  LirBBATUKB  IN  PRINCETON   COLLEGE 


<^\»  Hitor^lDe  ^ress,  Cambridge 
1891 


^T6  I 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  JAMES  O.  MURRAY. 

All  rights  reserved. 


7%e  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  8.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Company. 


For  the  pursuit  of  truth  hath  been  my  only  care  ever  since  I 
first  understood  the  meaning  of  the  word.  For  this  I  have  forsaken 
all  hopes,  all  friends,  all  desires  which  might  bias  me  and  hinder 
me  from  driving  right  at  what  I  aimed.  For  this  I  have  spent 
my  means,  my  youth,  my  age,  and  all  I  have,  that  I  might  remove 
from  myself  that  censure  of  Tertullian,  *'  Suo  vitio  quis  quid  ignorat" 
If  tvith  all  this  cost  and  pains  my  purchase  is  but  error,  I  may 
safely  say,  to  err  hath  cost  me  more  than  it  has  many  to  find  the  truth  ; 
and  truth  itself  shall  give  me  this  testimony  at  last,  that  if  I  have 
missed  of  her,  it  is  not  my  fault,  but  my  misfortune. 

JoaN  HAiiES  of  Eton.    Letter  to  Archbishop  Laud. 


M41939 


PREFACEo 


The  preparation  of  this  volume  was  intrusted 
to  my  hands  as  a  pupil  of  Dr.  Wayland.  It  was 
undertaken  in  the  spirit  of  gratitude  to  a  teacher 
for  whose  character  and  influence,  while  living, 
the  author  had  the  deepest  reverence,  and  for 
whose  memory,  when  dead,  a  great  and  growing 
appreciation.  A  Memoir  of  his  life  and  labors  had 
been  written  in  1867  with  pious  care  by  his  sons, 
the  Hon.  Francis  Wayland,  of  Yale  University, 
and  the  Rev.  Dr.  H.  Lincoln  Wayland,  of  Phil- 
adelphia. The  volumes  were  cordially  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  author,  with  a  full  permission 
to  use  their  contents.  If  this  book  shall  fulfil  its 
purpose  in  bringing  Dr.  Wayland  freshly  to  view 
as  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  religious  thought 
of  America,  it  will  be  because  facilities  so  rich 
were  thus  offered  the  writer.  By  the  wise  sug- 
gestion of  his  family,  Dr.  Wayland  had  written 


vi  PREFACE, 

out  with  some  fullness  Reminiscences  of  his  life. 
These  were  incorporated  in  the  biography  pub- 
lished by  his  sons.  As  occasion  served,  they 
have  been  quoted  as  adding  an  element  of  auto- 
biographical interest  to  the  book.  And  if  the 
author's  frequent  use  of  the  biographical  mate- 
rial in  the  published  Memoir  of  Dr.  Wayland 
shall  lead  any  readers  to  the  more  full  details  of 
that  life  there  faithfully  given,  he  will  feel  that 
he  has  not  written  wholly  in  vain. 

The  greater  part  of  Dr.  Wayland's  life  was 
spent  in  the  work  of  education.  Yet  he  was  none 
the  less  on  that  account  a  leader  in  religious 
thought.  It  was  religious  thought  mainly  as  to 
the  practical  working  of  Christianity,  not  as  to  its 
dogmatic  statements.  He  had  no  theory  of  edu- 
cation which  admitted  of  any  divorce  between  it 
and  religion,  nay,  between  it  and  the  Christian 
faith.  He  was  distinctively  a  religious  teacher 
all  his  life,  in  the  classroom,  on  the  platform, 
through  the  press,  and  in  the  pulpit.  Dr.  Arnold, 
of  Rugby,  moulded  the  religious  thinking  of  his 
pupils,  and  so  ultimately  that  of  wide  circles  in 
England.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Dr.  Waylandr 
in  America.     And  of  no  man  who  has  appeared 


PREFACE.  Vii 

among  us  to  assume  the  high  office  of  the  Chris- 
tian educator  can  the  noble  words  of  John  Hales, 
of  Eton,  which  stand  opposite  the  title-page  of 
this  volume,  hold  true  in  a  sense  more  unquali- 
fied than  of  Francis  Wayland.  In  the  hope,  there- 
fore, that  the  work  may  bring  his  strong  and 
noble  personality,  with  its  high  Christian  en- 
deavor and  high  Christian  attainment  in  the  ser- 
vice of  his  fellow-men,  freshly  before  this  gener- 
ation, it  is  committed  to  that  public  which  in 
America  has  always  been  quick  to  revere  and 
quick  to  follow  such  a  leader. 

James  O.  Murray. 

Princeton  Colleoe,  September  2, 1890. 


CONTENTS. 


VAffii 

CHAPTER  I. 
Eably  Yeabs  :  Home  and  Student  Lifb 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

Tutorship  at  Union  College:  Boston  Pastokate. 
1817-1827 81 

CHAPTER  III. 
Pbbsidency  of  Bbown  University.    1827-1840    ,    .    59 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Presidency  op  Brown  University.    1841-1855     .    .    88 

CHAPTER  V. 
Last  Years.    1855-1865 115 

CHAPTER  VL 
Dr.  Wayland  as  an  Educator      ........  162 

CHAPTER  Vn. 
Dr.  Wayland  as  an  Author       196 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Dr.  Wayland  as  a  Preacher 229 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Dr.  Wayland  as  a  Philanthropist  and  Citizen.    .  264 


FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY   YEARS:    HOME   AND   STUDENT   LIFE. 

It  may  justly  be  said  of  Dr.  Wayland  that  he 
was  happy  in  the  opportunity  of  his  life.  That 
life  was  passed  in  the  formative  period  of  our 
educational  and  religious  institutions.  At  no 
time  could  his  powers  have  counted  for  more ; 
at  no  time,  indeed,  could  he  have  better  done  his 
appointed  work.  No  sooner  had  the  war  for  in- 
dependence ended  and  the  government  of  the 
United  States  been  placed  on  a  settled  basis  by 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution ;  no  sooner  had 
the  national  life  begun  to  flow  in  its  new  chan- 
nels, than  there  was  a  great  advance  along  all 
the  lines  of  denominational  activity  and  educa- 
tional enterprise.  Everything  which  before  had 
been  carried  on  in  scattered,  sporadic  methods, 
now  tended  to  organization.  Boards  of  foreign 
and  home  missions  were  established.  Bible  and 
tract  societies  were  organized.  Theological  semi- 
naries were  founded.    New  colleges  were  planted, 


5i!    .'  .V     ;  «^YC'/^    WAYLAID. 

•  aV(^  >tl^';of&r  ;institiitions  more  liberally  en- 
dowed. The  religious  press  was  multiplied. 
Associations  for  moral  reform  were  instituted. 
The  first  half  of  this  century  was  prolific  in  all 
these  movements. 

In  this  development,  religious  and  educational, 
the  Baptist  denomination  bore  an  honorable  part. 
This  is  the  more  creditable  to  that  religious  body, 
because  its  early  history  in  this  country  had  been 
largely  one  of  struggle  under  persecutions  more 
or  less  bitter.  Baptists  fared  hardly  in  the  New 
England  Colonies.  They  had  a  treatment  scarce- 
ly less  hard  at  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  in  New 
York  and  from  the  authorities  in  Virginia  and 
Georgia.  Only  in  Maryland  and  Rhode  Island 
did  they  have  a  fair  and  undisturbed  opportu- 
nity for  growth.^ 

No  sooner,  however,  were  their  disabilities  re- 
moved, than  they  entered  upon  a  growth  which 
now  ranks  them  in  point  of  numbers  second 
among  the  Christian  denominations.^  In  1817, 
it  is  said  there  were  only  three  educated  Baptist 
ministers  west  of  the  Hudson  River  in  the  State 

^  Armitage's  History  of  the  Baptists,  see  pp.  686  et  seq. 
2  The  relative  numbers  of  Baptist  and  Methodist  churches, 
ministers,  and  members  are  as  follows  :  — 

CHURCHES.  MINISTERS.  MEMBERS. 

Baptist,  48,371  32,343  4,292,291 

Methodist,  54,711  31,765  4,980,240 

The  Independent,  July  31,  1890. 


EARLY   YEARS.  3 

of  New  York.  The  Baptists  had,  however,  be- 
fore the  Revohition,  begun  to  plant  institutions 
of  learning.  Under  the  auspices  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Association  of  Baptists,  the  academy  at 
Hopewell,  N.  J.,  was  founded  in  1756.  Brown 
University,  then  Rhode  Island  College,  received 
its  charter  in  February,  1764.  And  when,  after 
the  war  of  independence  was  ended,  the  general 
movement  for  enlarged  education  began,  the 
Baptists  were  not  behind  other  churches  in  their 
zeal  and  self-sacrifice.  In  1813,  the  Maine  Lit- 
erary and  Theological  Institute,  now  Colby  Uni- 
versity, received  its  charter.  In  1825,  the  Ham- 
ilton (N.  Y.)  Literary  and  Theological  Insti- 
tution was  opened.  The  Newton  (Mass.)  Theo- 
logical Institution  began  its  career  in  1825. 
These  are  facts  illustrating  the  energetic  spirit, 
which  then  among  the  Baptists  was  pushing 
the  cause  of  higher  education.  It  was  alike  for- 
tunate for  that  denomination,  and  for  the  inter- 
ests of  good  learning,  that  a  man  was  raised  up 
singularly  fitted  by  natural  endowments  and  by 
training,  for  various  and  important  movements 
in  social  progress,  especially  in  the  line  of  edu- 
cation. 

Francis  Wayland  was  born  March  11,  1796, 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  He  came  of  English 
stock  onl)oth  sides,  his  father,  Francis  Wayland, 
being  a  native  of  Frome,  Somersetshire,  and  his 


4  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

mother,  Sarah  (Moore)  Wayland,  a  native  of 
Norwich,  England.  His  ancestors,  further  re- 
moved, were  from  the  middle  class  of  English 
society,  and  were  dissenters  of  Baptist  senti- 
ments.^ Shortly  after  their  marriage,  his  par- 
ents emigrated  to  this  country,  landing  at  New 
York  September  20,  1793.  In  that  city  his  fa- 
ther at  once  set  up  his  business  as  a  currier.  By 
aid  of  a  small  capital,  and  still  more  by  means 
of  his  own  skill,  industry,  and  integrity,  he 
throve  in  his  calling.  The  time  was  propitious 
for  such  a  venture,  and  a  prosperous  business 
career  at  once  opened  before  him.  Mr.  Way- 
land  and  his  wife  had  both  been  members  of  a 
Baptist  Church  in  London.  After  their  arrival 
in  New  York  they  joined  what  was  then  the 
Fayette  Street  Baptist  Church,  subsequently, 
by  that  process  of  ecclesiastical  transmigration 
common  to  all  churches  in  the  metropolis,  the 
Oliver  Street,  and  now  the  Madison  Avenue, 
Baptist  Church.  It  is  a  tribute  to  his  piety  and 
weight  of  character  that  Mr.  Wayland  was  soon 
appointed  one  of  its  deacons.  The  home  life  of 
Dr.  W^ayland,  like  the  home  life  of  New  Eng- 
land Puritans,  was  marked  strongly  by  its  reli- 

1  An  uncle,  the  Rev.  Daniel  S.  Wayland,  between  whom 
and  Dr.  Wayland  a  cordial  intimacy  subsisted,  seems,  however, 
to  have  been  in  the  Established  Church,  a  rector  of  the  parish 
in  Bassinghara,  England. 


EARLY   YEARS.  5 

gious  features.  Sunday  especially  was  made  a 
day  of  Christian  nurture.  In  Reminiscences  of 
his  early  life,  which  Dr.  Way  land  prepared  "at 
the  request  of  his  family,  is  preserved  a  graphic 
picture  of  the  religious  training  in  that  house- 
hold. 

"  On  the  Lord's  day,  the  ride  of  the  family 
was  for  all  the  children  to  learn  a  hymn  before 
dinner,  and  a  portion  of  the  Catechism  before 
tea.  The  former  was  repeated  to  my  mother, 
the  latter  to  my  father.  It  was  not  his  custom 
to  attend  the  evening  meeting.  After  tea,  or  at 
candle -lighting,  we  were  all  assembled  in  the 
parlor,  my  father,  or  one  of  the  older  children, 
read  some  suitable  passage  of  Scripture,  which 
he  explained  and  illustrated,  frequently  direct- 
ing the  conversation  so  as  to  make  a  personal 
application  to  some  one  or  other  of  us.  Singing 
and  prayer  followed.  Occasionally  some  little 
refreshment  was  introduced,  and  we  retired  each 
at  an  early  hour  to  bed.  This  domestic  service 
was  never  interrupted  until  my  father  became  a 
preacher  and  spent  most  of  his  Sabbath  even- 
ings in  public  worship."  What,  however,  seems 
quite  as  influential  a  factor  in  Dr.  Wayland's 
early  training  was  the  contact  with  religious  and 
political  discussions  carried  on  in  his  father's 
house.  The  church  officers  had  formed  an  as- 
sociation, visiting  each  other's  houses  at  special 


6  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

seasons,  and  making  such  visits  the  occasion  in 
part  for  political  debate,  mainly,  it  seems,  for 
"  questions  of  doctrinal  or  experimental  reli- 
gion." Bible  study  formed  a  prominent  part  of 
the  evening's  occupation;  but  such  authors  as  An- 
drew Fuller,  Augustus  Toplady,  and  John  New- 
ton, appear  to  have  been  freely  quoted.  With 
all  this,  from  time  to  time,  political  discussions 
were  mingled.  The  Baptists  had  suffered  much 
from  what  was  called  the  "  Standing  Order,"  ^ 
which  in  New  England  had  been  somewhat 
rigorously  enforced  against  them.  This  was 
understood  to  be  supported  by  the  Federalists, 
while  the  Republicans,  on  the  other  hand,  fa- 
vored an  "  unrestricted  freedom  in  matters  of 
religious  opinion."  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  the  sympathies  of  the  Baptists  should  lie 
with  the  latter  party.  The  whole  subject  was 
under  discussion  by  the  Baptist  laymen  as  they 
met.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  imagine  a  young  lad 
sitting  quietly  by  and  watching  with  serious 
eyes  his  elders  as  they  discoursed  on  these  high 
themes  of  Christian  experience,  doctrine,  and 
polity.  It  was  an  education  which  was  no  mean 
adjunct  to  his  early  training,  and  its  influence 
can  be  plainly  traced  in  his  later  life. 

By  degrees  the  attention  of  the  senior  Way- 
land  was  turned  toward  the  Christian  ministry. 

1  Dr.  Arraitage's  History  of  the  Baptists,  pp.  740-741. 


EARLY   YEARS.  7 

He  probably  had  shown  more  than  common 
gifts  in  exhortation.  Accordingly  he  sought 
from  the  church  a  license  to  preach  the  gospel. 
To  secure  this  it  was  necessary,  according  to 
the  practice  of  Baptist  churches  at  that  time, 
that  he  should  preach  before  the  church  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  his  brethren  deciding  on  his 
qualifications  for  the  ministry.  The  custom  had 
much  to  recommend  it.  Certain  it  is  that  if 
churches  and  congregations  had  the  licensing 
power,  after  testing  the  actual  gifts  of  candi- 
dates, some  licenses  would  be  withheld  which 
bishops  and  presbyteries  and  councils  and  con- 
ferences now  see  fit  to  bestow. 

Mr.  Wayland  successfully  passed  the  ordeal, 
and  June  10,  1805,  received  a  license  to  preach, 
on  the  same  evening  with  his  Christian  brother 
and  lifelong  friend,  Daniel  Sharp,  of  honored 
memory,  so  long  the  pastor  of  the  Charles 
Street  Baptist  Church  in  Boston. 

Dr.  Wayland  says  that  his  father  at  first  only 
intended  to  become  a  lay  preacher.  For  three 
or  four  years  he  continued  in  business,  preach- 
ing to  destitute  churches  in  the  vicinity  of  New 
York.  But  the  work  grew  on  his  hands.  He 
could  not  serve  two  masters,  and  after  long  and 
anxious  deliberation  he  decided  to  throw  up  his 
worldly  vocation  with  all  its  prospects  of  suc- 
cess, and  devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  work 


8  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

of  the  ministry.  Accordingly  he  became  pastor 
of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Poughkeepsie  in  1807, 
and  subsequently  of  churches  in  Albany,  Troy, 
and  Saratoga  Springs. 

That  Dr.  Wayland's  views  of  the  importance 
belonging  to  pastoral  care,  and  of  the  supreme 
duty  of  the  Christian  Church  to  have  the  gospel 
preached  to  the  poor,  views  which  characterized 
his  latest  work  on  earth,  were  due  in  great  part 
to  his  father's  example,  is  clear.  Yet  his  early 
training  fell  mostly  into  the  hands  of  his  mother. 
His  father's  frequent  absences  from  home  threw 
him  into  her  society.  She  made  him  her  com- 
panion, relating  to  him  anecdotes  of  the  suffer- 
ings and  deaths  of  martyrs,  some  of  which  were 
associate^d  with  the  scenes  of  her  childhood.  Dr. 
Wayland's  intense  abhorrence  of  every  form  of 
religious  intolerance  was  a  well-known  trait  of 
his  character.  It  is  traceable  in  great  part  to 
the  influence  upon  his  mind  of  these  recitals. 
She  told  him  of  the  spot  in  Norwich  —  her  birth- 
place — "  where,  in  the  reign  of  Mary,  many 
Protestants  had  suffered  martyrdom,"  and  also 
"  of  the  remains  of  an  old  abbey  church  in  the 
dungeons  of  which  many  pious  persons  had  been 
tortured."  We  learn  from  church  history  that 
Richard  Bilney,  the  spiritual  father  of  Latimer, 
and  one  of  the  noblest  spirits  of  the  English 
Reformation,  was  burned  at  Norwich,  August 


EARLY    YEARS.  9 

19,  1531.^     It  was  to  his  martyrdom  that  she 
probably  referred. 

Dr.  Wayland's  Christian  character  was  pro- 
foundly affected  by  the  influence  and  by  the 
memory  of  his  mother.  Her  piety  was  precisely 
of  the  type  to  attract  and  to  mould  such  a  mind 
as  his.  It  was  intelligent  and  active,  but  with 
intelligence  and  activity  seems  also  to  have  been 
blended  a  saintly  type  of  devotion.  Dr.  Way- 
land  names  "  her  lovely  humility,  her  childlike 
meekness,  her  touching  self-denial  and  disinter- 
estedness, and  her  tender  and  affecting  charity  " 
as  her  peculiar  graces.  One  of  her  character- 
istic religious  traits  was  "  delight  in  tracing  the 
progress  of  the  cause  of  Christ,  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge,  and  the  triumphs  of  freedom  in  every 
part  of  the  globe."  It  is  easy  to  find  this  repro- 
duced in  the  life  of  her  son,  and  his  noted  sermon 
on  "The  Certain  Triumph  of  the  Redeemer's 
Kingdom  "  bears  on  its  pages  the  subtle  charm 
of  early  maternal  teachings.  Probably  he  owed 
almost  as  much  on  the  intellectual  side  as  on  the 
religious  to  his  mother.  Her  intellectual  char- 
acter was  marked.  In  the  letter  to  his  father 
written  on  hearing  of  her  death,  he  recalls  her 
"superior  mind, her  accurate  and  discriminating 
judgment,  her  strong  and  expansive  thirst  for 
knowledge."  The  relations  between  mother  and 
1  Geikie's  English  Beformation,  pp.  202-204. 


10  FRAHCIS  WAY  LAND. 

son  were  so  close  and  constant,  that  her  mother- 
hood transfused  its  noblest  qualities  into  the 
forming  character  of  the  affectionate  and  rever- 
encing son.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the 
multiplying  examples  of  saintly  motherhood  any 
instance  more  marked  for  spiritual  beauty  and 
for  spiritual  power. 

Dr.  Wayland's  school  life  began  inauspi- 
ciously.  His  first  schoolmaster  is  described  by 
him  as  a  man  "  who  never  taught  us  anything," 
and  in  whose  school  "  was  only  one  motive  to 
obedience,  —  terror."  "  I  do  not  remember," 
say  the  Reminiscences,  "  anything  approaching 
explanation  while  I  was  at  the  school.  A  sum  was 
set,  and  the  pupil  left  to  himself  to  find  out  the 
method  of  doing  it.  If  it  was  wrong,  the  error 
was  marked,  and  he  must  try  again.  If  again 
it  was  wrong,  he  was  imprisoned  after  school,  or 
he  was  whipped.  .  .  .  Geography  was  studied 
without  a  map,  by  the  use  of  a  perfectly  dry 
compendium.  I  had  no  idea  what  was  meant 
by  bounding  a  country,  though  I  duly  repeated 
the  boundaries  at  recitation.  I  studied  English 
grammar  in  the  same  way." 

Such  experiences  are  in  his  case  the  more 
worthy  of  note  because  they  were  remembered 
to  good  purpose  in  his  after  career  as  a  teacher. 
His  pupils  in  college  all  recalled  the  fact  that 
lucid  explanation  was  a  cardinal  point  in  all  his 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  11 

instructions.  His  abhorrence  of  confused  and 
muddy  conceptions  of  any  subject  may  be  dated 
from  his  own  sufferings  in  his  earliest  school- 
days. On  the  occasion  of  his  father's  removal 
to  Poughkeepsie,  being  then  in  his  eleventh 
year,  he  was  placed  in  the  Dutchess  County 
Academy.  At  first  there  seemed  little  change 
for  the  better  in  the  quality  of  instruction.  Here 
he  began  the  study  of  the  classics.  It  was  pur- 
sued at  that  time  evidently  under  great  dif- 
ficulties. In  Greek  the  Westminster  Greek 
Grammar  was  the  text-book  for  beginners.  The 
text  was  in  Latin.  Students  were  expected  to 
master  its  rules  before  their  knowledge  of  Latin 
was  equal  to  construing  simple  narrative  Latin 
sentences.  Fifteen  years  later,  Sydney  Smith 
satirized  this  method  of  classical  study,  in  his  ar- 
ticle on  the  "Method  of  Teaching  Languages." ^ 
He  used  the  Westminster  Grammar  as  the  stalk- 
ing-horse from  which  to  shoot  his  arrows  of  wit. 
"From  the  Westminster  Grammar  we  make 
the  following  extract,  and  some  thousand  rules 
conveyed  in  poetry  of  equal  merit  must  be  fixed 
upon  the  mind  of  the  youthful  Grecian,  before 
he  advances  into  the  interior  of  the  language." 

"  «  finis  thematis  finis  ntriusque  f  uturi  est. 
Post  liquidem  in  primo,  vel  in  unoquoque  secnndo, 
«  eircumflexus  est.     Ante  w  finale  character 
Explicitus  Se  primi  est  iraplicitusque  futuri 
o»  itaque  in  quo  8  quasi  plexum  est  solitu  in  Sw." 
1  Edinburgh  Review,  1826. 


12  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

Fortunately,  however,^  a^  a  later  period  he 
came  under  a  teacher,  who  understood  the  great 
art  of  instruction.  An  enthusiast  in  his  call- 
ing, he  seems  to  have  inspired  his  pupils  with  a 
kindred  enthusiasm,  to  have  cultivated  in  them 
also  habits  of  self-reliance.  This  teacher,  Mr. 
Daniel  H.  Barnes,  had  indeed  accomplished  a 
great  part  of  Dr.  Wayland's  education  when  he 
taught  his  pupil  "  to  study  for  the  love  of  it  and 
to  take  a  pride  in  accurate  knowledge."  This 
was  a  fruitful  period  in  his  mental  development. 
Not  only  in  general  scholarship  was  the  progress 
marked  by  his  fellow -students  as  well  as  his 
teacher,  but  he  showed  signs  of  becoming  the 
"  good,  strong  speaker  "  of  later  days.  One  of 
his  early  declamations  was  an  extract  from  some 
orator  on  "Injured  Africa."  Injured  Africa 
was  a  subject  which  occupied  his  thoughts  to  his 
latest  day,  and  on  no  theme  did  he  ever  discourse 
more  eloquently.  So  too  his  abiding  interest 
in  the  career  of  Napoleon  I.  dates  from  these 
school-days.  He  studied  that  career  profoundly. 
It  fascinated  him,  and  he  was  an  admirer  of 
the  military  genius  of  the  great  Corsican.  The 
dread  of  Napoleon,  which  was  then  oppressing 
England,  was  shared  to  some  extent  by  this 
country.  After  the  fashion  of  those  days,  the 
pupils  were  set  to  dispute  the  following  ques- 
tion, "  If  Bonaparte  should  conquer  England,  can 


HOME  AND   STUDENT  LIFE.  13 

he  conquer  America?'*  Young  Way  land  took 
the  affirmative,  maintaining  it  with  no  little  skill 
for  a  boy  of  his  years.  At  this  school,  Dr. 
Wayland  remained  till  the  removal  of  his 
father  to  Albany  in  1811.  He  applied  for  ad- 
mission to  the  freshman  class  of  Union  College, 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  in  May  of  that  year.  Upon 
examination  he  was  told  that  he  could  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  sophomore  class,  and  joined  it  in 
the  third  term,  being  then  fifteen  years  of  age. 
His  only  deficiency  was  in  mathematics,  which 
was  made  up  in  the  ensuing  vacation.  To  his 
college  course,  so  far  as  instruction  went,  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  owed  much.  That  he 
was  a  hard  student,  popular  with  his  classmates, 
fond  of  athletic  sports  as  well,  observant  of  the 
college  discipline,  the  testimony  of  his  fellow- 
students  shows.  But  the  course  of  instruction 
must  have  been  meagre  even  for  that  day.  He 
says  of  it  in  the  Reminiscences:  "The  course 
was  very  limited.  Chemistry  was  scarcely  born ; 
electricity  was  a  plaything ;  algebra  was  studied 
for  six  weeks ;  and  geology  was  named  only  to 
be  laughed  at." 

If,  however,  he  owed  little  to  the  curriculum 
of  study  as  then  pursued,  he  owed  to  Dr.  Nott, 
then  in  the  beginning  of  his  long  and  honored 
presidency,  what  was  a  liberal  education  in  itself. 
His  tributes  to  Dr.  Nott  make  this  abundantly 


14  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

clear.  And  that  he  had  shown  marked  ability 
in  the  mastery  of  his  studies  as  well  as  high 
character,  is  evinced  by  his  subsequent  appoint- 
ment to  the  position  of  tutor  in  the  college. 
He  was  graduated  July  28,  1813,  at  seventeen 
years  of  age.  It  marks  one  difference  between 
college  education  in  that  day  and  this,  to  note 
that  this  is  now  hardly  the  average  age  of  stu- 
dents at  entrance  in  our  higher  institutions. 

Immediately  after  his  graduation  he  began  a 
course  of  medical  study.  This  was  at  that  time 
pursued  mainly  in  the  offices  of  distinguished 
practitioners,  supplemented,  in  the  case  of  those 
whose  means  admitted  of  it,  with  a  course  of 
lectures  in  one  of  the  medical  schools.  Follow- 
ing this  method  he  studied  under  Dr.  Moses 
Hale  and  Dr.  Eli  Burritt  in  Troy.  The  winter 
of  1814-15  was  occupied  in  attending  medical 
lectures  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

It  was  while  engaged  in  these  professional 
studies  that  Dr.  Wayland  experienced  a  sort  of 
intellectual  regeneration.  This  is  not  uncom- 
mon in  the  lives  of  distinguished  men.  Readers 
of  Carlyle  will  recall  the  well-known  passage  in 
"  Sartor  Kesartus,"  ^  where  is  described  what  he 
calls  his  "Spiritual  new -birth,  or  Baphometic 
Fire-baptism."  In  the  case  of  Dr.  Wayland,  it 
seems  to  have  been  more  purely  a  mental  trans- 

1  Book  2,  chapter  7. 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  15 

formation.  He  makes  much  account  of  it  in  the 
Reminiscences.  After  a  lengthened  description 
of  his  desultory  habits  of  reading,  of  his  inabil- 
ity to  appreciate  "  abstract  thought,"  he  says :  — 

"  I  then  first  became  conscious  of  a  decided 
change  in  my  whole  intellectual  character.  I  was 
sitting  by  a  window  in  an  attic  room  which  I  oc- 
cupied as  a  sort  of  study,  or  reading  place,  and  by 
accident  I  opened  a  volume  of  the  '  Spectator ' 
—  I  think  it  was  one  of  the  essays  forming  Ad- 
dison's Critique  on  Milton, —  it  was,  at  any  rate, 
something  purely  didactic.  I  commenced  read- 
ing it,  and  to  my  delight  and  surprise  found 
that  I  understood  and  really  enjoyed  it.  I  could 
not  account  for  the  change.  I  read  on,  and 
found  that  the  very  essays  which  I  had  for- 
merly passed  over  without  caring  to  read  them 
were  now  to  me  the  gems  of  the  whole  book, 
vastly  more  attractive  than  the  stories  and  nar- 
ratives that  I  had  formerly  read  with  so  much 
interest.  I  knew  not  how  to  account  for  it.  I 
could  explain  it  on  no  other  theory  than  that  a 
change  had  taken  place  in  myself.  I  awoke  to 
the  consciousness  that  I  was  a  thinking  being, 
and  a  citizen,  in  some  sort,  of  the  republic  of 
letters." 

His  intellectual  regeneration  was  complete. 
The  fondness  for  fiction,  once  strong,  never  re- 
turned.     Aside  from  want  of  interest   in  this 


16  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

kind  of  literature  he  seems  also  to  have  shrunk 
from  all  sorts  of  painful  description.  This 
change  in  the  mental  tastes  which  lay  at  the 
foundation  of  his  intellectual  development,  oc- 
curred in  his  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  year.  It 
was  followed  by  a  spiritual  regeneration,  which 
still  more  profoundly  affected  the  character  and 
changed  the  currents  of  life  for  him. 

Dr.  Wajdand  was  one  of  that  class  who  suf- 
fered from  the  theological  training  too  often 
then  imposed  on  the  young.  He  dwells  at  some 
length  on  this  in  his  Reminiscences,  speaks  of 
his  father's  earlier  views  —  those  in  which  he 
was  bred  —  as  very  rigid  Calvinism,  modified  in 
later  years  through  the  teachings  of  Andrew 
Fuller.  Not  questioning  any  views  which  had 
been  inculcated  in  him,  he  was  yet  miserable 
under  their  influence.  "  I  believed,"  he  says, 
"the  truths  of  religion,  for  aught  I  know,  as 
fully  as  I  do  now.  But  my  heart  was  unmoved. 
I  had  some  wish  to  be  a  Christian,  but  I  had  no 
true  idea  of  faith  or  repentance,  and  all  the 
theological  illustrations  which  I  heard  seemed  to 
involve  the  subject  in  deeper  darkness.  .  .  . 
When  I  reflected  at  all  upon  religion  I  was  mis- 
erable." It  is  evident  that  his  mental  sufferings 
were  both  poignant  and  prolonged.  No  help 
came  to  him  from  sermons  he  heard  or  books  he 
read.    He  was  treading  a  solitary  path,  —  work- 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  17 

ing  out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling. The  experiences,  however,  which  he  then 
underwent  had  on  him  a  twofold  effect,  —  one 
speculative,  the  other  practical.  They  made  him 
averse  to  anything  like  closely  reticulated  theo- 
logical systems.  They  made  him  an  admirable 
religions  guide  for  many  a  young  soul  entangled 
in  religious  troubles  of  whatever  type  and  how- 
ever begotten. 

It  was  not  till  the  close  of  his  medical  stud- 
ies that  his  soul  gained  the  needed  relief.  His 
mental  sufferings  had  increased,  until  he  re- 
solved to  drop  everything  else  and  bend  all 
efforts  to  end  the  long  struggle.  He  gave  him- 
self up  to  the  solitude  of  his  room,  reading 
the  Scriptures  and  calling  upon  God.  It  went 
on  so  for  days.  "  How  long  time  I  remained  in 
this  condition  I  do  not  now  remember.  I  was 
embarrassed  by  ignorance  of  the  plan  of  salva- 
tion, —  an  ignorance  all  the  more  embarrassing 
because  I  supposed  it  to  be  knowledge.  I  had 
marked  out  a  plan  of  conversion  in  accordance 
with  the  prevailing  theological  notions."  The 
struggle  seemed  fruitless,  and  at  length  he  re- 
turned to  his  usual  duties.  Fortunately  he 
found  in  the  Rev.  Mr.  Mattison  of  Vermont,  a 
Baptist  clergyman,  a  man  who  understood  his 
case  and  whose  wise  counsels  did  him  excellent 
service.     The  expectation  of  some  extraordinary 


18  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

inward  revelation  was  given  np,  and  the  fact  ac- 
cepted that  he  was  already  a  child  of  God.  It 
seems  strange  that  he  was  so  long  involved  in 
these  distressing  doubts.  In  his  Reminiscences 
he  attributes  much  of  this  to  the  pride  which  de- 
sired a  ''  striking  conversion."  This  type  of  con- 
version was  highly  prized  and  eagerly  sought  in 
those  days  of  burning  revivals.  It  is  possible, 
indeed,  that  he  may  have  had  some  of  this  desire. 
But  it  seems  more  in  accordance  with  the  struc- 
ture of  his  mind  to  think  that  he  was  unable  to 
find  rest  for  his  soul,  till  he  had  worked  his  way 
clear  through  all  the  logical  and  theological  dif- 
ficulties caused  by  the  early  training  of  which 
mention  has  been  made.  This  incident  in  his 
conversion  is  noteworthy  as  showing  the  falseness 
of  notions,  now  happily  outgrown,  which  made 
of  "  striking  conversions  "  a  snare  for  spiritual 
self-conceit.  If  for  a  time,  as  he  says,  he  was 
under  the  power  of  such  an  ambition,  it  only 
shows  the  strength  of  the  delusion  then  preva- 
lent which  could  so  entangle  a  nature  like  his, 
singularly  free  in  earlier  and  later  life  from 
everything  like  ostentation. 

He  was  baptized  and  received  into  the  mem- 
bership of  the  Baptist  Church,  the  church  of  his 
fathers,  of  whose  history  he  was  proud,  and  his 
loyalty  to  which  all  his  subsequent  life  proved. 
It  was  entirely  characteristic  of    him  that   he 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  19 

threw  himself  at  once  into  Christian  work.  On 
the  organization  of  a  Sabbath-school  in  Troy, 
he  offered  his  services  as  a  teacher.  The  class 
he  selected  was  one  of  colored  boys,  and  the 
reasons  assigned  for  his  choice  were  their  greater 
need  of  instruction  and  the  opportunity  thus 
given  for  "  following  out  most  closely  the  ex- 
ample of  Christ."  In  this  incident,  we  see  the 
germ  of  that  spirit  which  moved  him,  when 
President  of  Brown  University,  to  teach  a  Bible 
class  of  convicts  in  the  penitentiary  at  Provi- 
dence. 

•  The  spiritual  change  which  prompted  this 
step  prompted  also  another  and  greater,  no  less 
than  the  abandonment  of  the  medical  profession 
and  entrance  upon  the  ministry  of  the  gospel. 
It  was  a  serious  matter  to  throw  by  the  prepa- 
ration of  several  years  for  active  life,  and  enter 
upon  a  new  step  cf  preparation  for  a  wholly  dif- 
ferent sphere  of  activity.  He  was  ready  to  begin 
the  practice  of  medicine,  —  had  in  fact  already 
begun  its  practice.  To  engage  in  theological 
study  involved  pecuniary  struggle,  his  father's 
means  having  been  much  diminished  by  finan- 
cial losses.  It  put  off  indefinitely  settlement 
in  life,  and  necessitated  arduous  work  on  new 
lines  of  study.  His  interest  in  the  science  of 
medicine  was  strong,  and  that  he  would  have 
risen   to   eminence   in   the   profession  there  is 


20  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

every  reason  to  believe.  But  whatever  he 
might  have  become  as  a  medical  practitioner  in 
Troy,  he  never  could  have  reached  the  larger 
fame,  the  nobler  usefulness,  he  attained  as  a 
preacher  and  an  educator.  The  world  has  been 
deeply  the  gainer  by  his  change  of  callings.  It 
was  made,  not  without  careful  thought.  He  was 
never  a  man  of  impulses.  It  involved  some 
degree  of  struggle.  The  work  of  a  physician 
was  congenial  to  him.  He  always  cherished 
profound  respect  for  the  medical  calling.  But 
he  never  in  any  matter  halted  between  two  opin- 
ions. His  decision  of  character  was  operative 
here,  and  no  sooner  was  he  reasonably  sure  of 
himself  as  a  Christian  disciple  than  he  obeyed 
the  divine  impulse  which  impelled  him  toward 
the  ministry  of  reconciliation.  His  home  train- 
ing, especially  the  example  of  his  father,  who  had 
relinquished  a  growing  and  lucrative  business 
to  preach  the  Gospel,  was  a  factor  in  his  choice. 
But  it  was  least  of  all  in  his  thoughts  to  enter 
upon  the  sacred  calling  without  special  training 
for  it.  The  trend  of  his  denomination  was  not, 
at  that  time,  strongly  toward  an  educated  min- 
istry. The  Baptists  had  indeed  begun  their  work 
in  theological  education  by  planting  a  theolog- 
ical institute  at  Waterville  in  1813.  But  this 
was  far  distant  and  was  not  fully  manned.  An- 
dover  Seminary,  fouuded  in  1807,  had  already 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  21 

gained  high  repute  as  a  school  of  sacred  learn- 
ing. Princeton  Seminary,  founded  five  years 
later,  in  1812,  was  rapidly  gaining  its  honored 
position  under  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Archibald 
Alexander  and  Dr.  Samuel  Miller.  The  ad- 
vantages of  both  institutions,  respectively,  were 
urged  upon  him  by  their  friends,  and  carefully 
weighed.  An  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Elias  Cor- 
nelius of  Boston,  whicli  later  ripened  into  friend- 
ship, decided  his  choice  in  favor  of  Andover 
Seminary,  —  a  choice  never  regretted  by  him. 
The  hand  of  welcome.  Dr.  Cornelius  assured  him, 
would  be  extended  at  Andover,  and  also  sub- 
stantial aid,  if  desired.  In  the  autumn  of  1816 
Dr.  Wayland  once  more  began  student  life  in 
the  Theological  Seminary  at  Andover. 

The  Andover  of  that  day  was  just  beginning 
its  great  career  as  a  theological  seminary.  There 
was  "one  four -story  brick  building."  The 
faculty  was  composed  of  Dr.  Leonard  Woods, 
Professor  of  Christian  Theology ;  Dr.  Ebenezer 
Porter,  Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric ;  and  Dr. 
Moses  Stuart,  Professor  of  Sacred  Literature. 
On  the  catalogue  of  that  year,  1816-17,  are 
found  the  names  of  sixty-seven  students.  That 
they  made  up  a  student-body  full  of  intellectual 
as  well  as  spiritual  life  is  evident  from  such 
names  on  the  roll  as  those  of  Ira  Chase,  one 
of  the  founders  of  Newton  Theological  Semi- 


22  FHANCIS   WAYLAND. 

nary  in  1825,  and  professor  there  for  twenty 
years ;  of  Joseph  Torrey,  for  forty  years  con- 
nected with  the  University  of  Vermont,  made  its 
president  in  1863,  and  still  more  widely  known 
as  the  translator  of  Neander's  Church  History ; 
of  missionaries  like  Pliny  Fisk,  one  of  the  first 
American  missionaries  to  Western  Asia;  of  Hi- 
ram Bingham,  the  veteran  missionary  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands ;  of  John  King,  the  well- 
known  missionary  to  Greece;  of  other  divines 
like  Joel  Hawes,  and  Henry  J.  Ripley,  and  Or- 
ville  Dewey.  With  such  men  Dr.  Wayland 
came  at  once  into  cordial  sympathy.  They  rec- 
ognized his  earnestness  and  purpose,  and  he  felt 
the  stimulating  power  of  such  companionship. 
The  simplicity  of  the  life  then  in  vogue,  the  old- 
time  Puritan  simplicity,  pleased  him,  and  he 
found  friends  on  every  hand.  In  less  than  half 
an  hour  from  his  arrival  in  town,  he  had  passed 
his  examination  under  Dr.  Woods,  and  had  be- 
come a  member  of  the  institution. 

During  his  residence  at  Andover,  he  seems  to 
have  been  under  the  tuition  of  only  one  pro- 
fessor. The  junior  class,  of  which  he  was  a 
member,  met  Dr.  Woods  and  Dr.  Porter  only  at 
what  was  called  the  "  Professors'  Conference." 
This  was  held  once  a  fortnight  in  the  evening, 
and  seems  to  have  been  a  fauiiliar  lecture  or  dis- 
course on  topics  connected  with  religious  expe- 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  23 

rience,  followed  by  questions  from  the  students. 
This  service  made  decided  impression  on  Dr. 
Wayland.  He  preserved  his  notes  of  these  lec- 
tures. It  was  in  its  nature  an  exercise  to  inter- 
est him  deeply,  being  thoroughly  practical.  At 
Princeton  Seminary,  this  feature  of  seminary  life 
still  maintained,  has  marked  deeply  the  whole 
history  of  the  institution.  The  "  Conference  Pa- 
pers "  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  have  illustrated  its 
scope  and  power. 

"  It  was  at  Andover  that  I  first  learned  to 
study,"  Dr.  Wayland  once  said.  He  was 
speaking  of  his  instruction  in  the  seminary  by 
Professor  Moses  Stuart.  His  introduction  to 
this  eminent  teacher  occurred  before  he  reached 
the  institution.  "  I  well  remember,"  he  says  in 
his  address  at  the  semi-centennial  of  Andover 
Seminary,  "  my  first  introduction  to  the  man 
to  whom  I  owe  so.  much.  •  It  occurred  in  the 
stage-coach  between  Boston  and  Andover,  when 
I  was  coming  to  enter  the  seminary.  Professor 
Stuart  and  the  late  Rev.  Sereno  E.  Dwight 
were  among  the  passengers.  The  conversation 
between  these  two  eminent  men  turned  mainly 
on  the  Unitarian  controversy,  which  was  then 
occupying  a  large  share  of  public  attention.  It 
was  well  worth  a  journey  to  Andover  to  witness 
the  movement  of  Professor  Stuart's  mind  upon 
the  question.     While  he  spoke  with  the  highest 


24  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

respect  of  the  talents  and  learning  of  those 
from  whom  he  differed,  the  unshaken,  elastic, 
and  joyous  confidence  with  which  he  held  the 
truth  as  he  believed  it,  stirred  your  mind  like 
the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  He  was  ready  at  any 
moment  to  enter  upon  the  controversy,  and  to 
carry  it  to  the  utmost  limits  of  exegetical  in- 
quiry. All  he  wanted  was  a  fair  field  and  no 
favor.  All  he  wished  was  the  triumph  of  truth, 
and  he  was  ever  ready  to  surrender  any  religious 
belief  he  held,  if  he  could  not  on  the  acknow- 
ledged principles  of  interpretation  show  that  it 
was  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures."  The  ride 
in  this  stage-coach  from  Boston  to  Andover  with 
Professor  Stuart  was  for  Dr.  Wayland  one  of 
those  crises  in  life,  apparently  trivial,  but  mould- 
ing and  coloring  the  whole  future.  From  that 
hour  began  a  friendship,  the  influence  of  which 
Dr.  Wayland  never*ceased  to  feel.  It  was  just 
such  a  mind  and  just  such  a  spirit  as  would  at 
once  impress,  delight,  and  hold  him  under  their 
sway.  It  was  no  ill-fortune  which  placed  him 
for  that  year  mainly,  if  not  wholly,  under  the 
teachings  of  Moses  Stuart.  His  entire  time 
was  thus  given  to  exegetical  study,  both  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  The  picture  he  has 
drawn  of  his  student  life  is  worth  preserving,  as 
furnishing  a  view  of  the  demands  of  theolog- 
ical discipline  in  those  days.  The  "  laborare  " 
and  the  "  orare  "  were  duly  mingled. 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  25 

"  I  have  risen  through  the  shortest  days  at 
six  o'clock,  nearly  an  hour  before  it  was  light 
enough  to  see  to  read.  That  is  the  time  of  the 
ringing  of  the  first  bell  through  the  term.  From 
six  to  seven  is  spent  in  private  and  family  devo- 
tion. At  seven  the  bell  rings  for  prayers,  which 
one  of  the  senior  class  conducts.  The  exercises 
are  singing,  reading  a  portion  of  Scripture,  and 
prayer.  Thence  we  repair  to  breakfast.  From 
breakfast  till  nine  o'clock  is,  or  ought  to  be,  de- 
voted to  exercise.  At  nine  we  commence  study, 
and  study  till  half  past  twelve,  when  we  eat  din- 
ner. From  one  to  three,  study.  At  three,  reci- 
tation. This  generally  continues  till  prayers  at 
five.  After  prayers  (in  the  evening  by  the  pro- 
fessors in  rotation),  supper.  After  supper,  a 
little  exercise,  and  then  study  or  writing  till  half 
past  ten.  From  that  time  till  eleven,  devotions  ; 
at  eleven,  bed.  Sometimes  we  go  to  bed  a  little 
earlier.  On  Mondays  and  Thursdays  we  recite 
Hebrew ;  on  Tuesdays  and  Fridays,  Greek. 
There  is  no  skimming  over  the  surface  here.  A 
man  must  go  to  the  bottom  if  he  goes  at  all." 

It  is  evident  from  this  account  that  life  at 
Andover  Seminary  in  those  days  was  serious 
business.  Something  of  this  ancient  rigidity  has 
doubtless  been  relaxed  according  to  modern  no- 
tions. The  demand  was  none  too  rio:id  for  the 
men  of  that  day.     They  seem  to  have  survived 


26  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

it,  and  to  have  been  all  the  better  equipped  for 
their  work  as  ministers  by  dint  of  it.  At  least 
this  was  the  case  with  Dr.  Way  land.  Ihere  can 
be  no  doubt  that  his  original  capacity  for  hard 
work  was  great,  and  as  little  doubt  that  this  An- 
dover  regime  developed  that  capacity  to  its  ut- 
most tension.  There  were  difficulties  in  the  path 
of  the  student  of  Hebrew  in  those  days  which 
have  long  disappeared.  The  only  text-book  in 
Hebrew  Grammar  then  accessible  to  students 
was  that  published  by  Professor  Stuart  in  1813. 
It  was  only  a  compendium,  and  without  vowel- 
points.  To  the  class  of  which  Dr.  Wayland 
was  a  member,  he  gave  instruction  by  lectures 
on  Hebrew  Grammar,  using  the  vowel-points. 
These  lectures  were  taken  dojvn  by  the  class  in 
note-books.  It  is  a  proof  of  Professor  Stuart's 
genius  that  lecturing  thus  on  a  subject  dry  as 
Hebrew  Grammar,  he  could  raise  enthusiasm  in 
all  his  pupils.  Students  suffered  also  from  the 
expensiveness  of  books.  A  Hebrew  Bible  and 
lexicon  cost  at  that  time  from  thirty  to  forty  dol- 
lars. Dr.  Wayland  once  showed  his  sons  a  copy 
of  Schleusner's  New  Testament  Lexicon,  in  two 
volumes,  bound  in  parchment,  and  said,  "  While 
I  was  at  Andover  I  had  ten  dollars  left ;  I  was 
very  much  in  want  of  a  coat.  I  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  buy  this  book  for  ten  dollars,  and  so  I 
went  without  the  coat." 


HOME  AND  STUDENT  LIFE.  27 

The  year  was  one  of  more  or  less  anxiety  due 
to  pecuniary  embarrassment.  At  its  close  he 
found  himself  so  straitened  for  want  of  means 
that  he  was  compelled  to  look  about  for  some 
employment  in  teaching.  The  kindness  of  An- 
dover  friends  had  been  unfailing.  They  had 
supplied  his  board  and  possibly  other  aid.  But 
the  end  of  his  first  year  in  Andover  Seminary 
found  him  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  his 
own  support.  In  fact,  the  entire  year  had  been 
a  struggle  with  poverty.  It  depressed  his  spirits. 
It  was  not  in  his  nature  to  live  comfortably  in 
dependence  on  others.  He  saw  no  prospect  of 
being  able  to  increase  his  slender  resources  by 
any  labors  while  in  the  seminary.  It  grieved 
him  to  be  taxing  the  devoted  kindness  of  his 
parents,  when  he  knew  at  what  sacrifice  their  aid 
was  rendered.  In  short,  it  was  an  experience  in 
life  which  he  never  forgot.  It  left  its  traces  on 
him  through  life  in  a  horror  of  debt  and  in  a 
true  sympathy  with  that  class  of  deserving  stu- 
dents who  worry  through  their  education  on 
scanty  means. 

At  this  juncture  he  received  a  letter  from  his 
friend  and  former  teacher,  Professor  McAuley, 
informing  him  of  a  vacancy  in  one  of  the  tutor- 
ships at  Union  College.  This  opened  a  door  of 
escape  from  the  pressure  of  financial  burdens. 
He  made  application  for  it,  and  promptly  re- 


28  FRANCIS   WAYLAXD. 

ceived  the  appointment.  This  is  characteristic- 
ally noticed  in  his  Reminiscences :  "  I  have  re- 
ceived many  appointments  since,  some  of  which 
seemed  important ;  some  instances  of  what  men 
call  good  fortune  have  happened  to  me  ;  but  I 
cannot  recollect  anything  of  the  kind  that  af- 
forded me  so  much  joy  as  this.  It  gave  me  the 
means  of  living ;  it  enabled  me  to  pursue  my 
studies,  and  it  was  a  sort  of  recognition  of  abil- 
ity and  acquisition  which  I  had  never  hoped  for, 
but  which  was  all  the  more  gratifying." 

It  is  not  strange  that  Dr.  Wayland  hailed  this 
appointment  as  tutor  at  Union  College  with 
such  joy.  It  did  not  mean  that  he  was  faltering 
in  his  purpose  to  pursue  his  theological  educa- 
tion. It  meant  for  him  an  exemption  from  a 
dependence  on  others  that  galled  bis  spirit.  It 
was  definitely  his  purpose  to  return  and  re- 
sume the  course  of  study  in  Andover  Seminary. 
That  this  purpose  was  never  carried  out  is 
true.  In  some  respects  it  was  unfortunate  for 
him.  Aside  from  the  importance  to  him  of  a 
more  thorough  theological  training  than  he  ever 
gained,  the  mental  discipline  of  two  more  years 
under  such  masters  in  such  studies  could  not 
be  replaced  by  any  experience  in  teaching. 
As  it  was,  however,  the  year  spent  at  Andover 
Seminary  was  invaluable.  His  studies  under 
Moses  Stuart  did  far  more  for  him  than  simply 


HOME  AND   STUDENT  LIFE.  29 

to  qualify  him  in  exegesis  for  his  future  study 
of  the  Bible.  They  brought  him  under  the  edu- 
cating influence  of  a  teacher  who  quickened  and 
moulded  his  whole  mental  development.  It 
gave  him  the  highest  ideal  of  a  teacher.  It 
tended  largely  to  make  of  Dr.  Wayland  the 
princely  teacher  he  was  in  subsequent  years  in 
Brown  University.  It  endowed  him  with  the 
spirit  of  fearless  investigation,  which,  truth-lov- 
ing as  he  was  by  nature,  ruled  all  his  intellec- 
tual conduct.  "If  I  do  not  err,"  he  said  in  his 
address  at  the  semi-centennial  celebration  of 
Andover  Seminary,  alluding  to  Professor  Stuart, 
"  he  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  teachers  of 
his  age.  His  acquaintance  with  his  subject  in 
the  class-room  was  comprehensive  and  minute. 
There  was  no  sacrifice  in  his  power  which  he  did 
not  rejoice  to  make  if  by  it  he  could  promote  the 
progress  of  his  pupils.  It  seems  as  if  all  he 
asked  of  us  was,  that  we  should  aid  him  in  his 
efforts  to  confer  on  us  the  largest  amount  of 
benefit.  He  allowed  and  encouraged  the  largest 
freedom  of  inquiry  in  the  recitation-room,  and 
was  never  impatient  of  any  question  if  the  ob- 
ject of  it  was  either  to  elicit  truth  or  to  detect 
error.  .  .  .  This  alone  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient to  place  Moses  Stuart  in  the  first  class  of 
instructors.  But  to  this  he  added  a  power  of 
arousing  enthusiasm  such  as  I  have  never  else- 
where seen.     The  living  earnestness  of  his  own 


30  FRANCIS  WAYLAND  . 

spirit  kindled  to  a  flame  everything  that  came  in 
contact  with  it." 

The  influence  of  this  gifted-  teacher  on  him 
must  be  distinctly  recognized  as  one  of  the  more 
powerful  factors  in  shaping  Dr.  Way  land's  ca- 
reer as  a  leader  in  religious  and  educational 
movements.  While  Professor  Stuart  nfever  had 
under  him  a  pupil  more  receptive  or  more  gifted, 
it  is  equally  true  that  Dr.  Way  land  never  could 
have  done  his  work  in  life  but  for  the  training 
he  received  at  the  hands  of  Moses  Stuart. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  debt  which  Dr.  Way- 
land  owed  to  his  Andover  life.  His  natural  bent 
was  averse  from  all  narrowness.  He  never  could 
have  been  a  party  man  under  any  circumstances. 
His  love  of  broad  and  generous  views  was  innate. 
He  was  catholic  in  his  sympathies.  But  the 
warm  reception,  the  delicate  kindness  received 
at  the  hands  of  his  Andover  friends  among  the 
Congregationalists,  intensified  his  own  catholic- 
ity. His  student  life  at  Andover  left  him  none 
the  less  a  Baptist.  But  his  associations  at  An- 
dover Seminary  and  Union  College  with  Chris- 
tians of  different  communions  were  such  that 
they  educated  in  him  that  noble  freedom  from 
all  mere  sectarianism,  that  large,  profound  sym- 
pathy with  his  Christian  brethren  in  all  denom- 
inations, which  was  no  secondary  element  in  his 
subsequent  usefulness.  To  this,  he  bears  direct 
and  graceful  testimony  in  his  Reminiscences. 


CHAPTER  IT. 

TUTORSHIP   AT    UNION   COLLEGE:     BOSTON  PAS- 
TORATE,  1817-1827. 

To  a  clergyman  who  made  to  him  the  remark, 
"  Wherever  I  have  been,  I  have  always  been 
thinking  of  something  else,  and  preparing  for 
another  position,"  Dr.  Wayland  rejoined,  "  I 
have  gone  on  just  the  opposite  principle.  What- 
ever I  was  doing,  I  have  always  fixed  my  mind 
on  that  one  thing,  and  tried  not  to  think  of  any- 
thing else."  In  this  spirit,  he  entered  on  his 
duties  as  tutor.  He  was  charged  in  his  first 
year  with  the  instruction  of  the  Freshman  class 
in  the  classics.  The  class  was  small ;  but  three 
recitations  a  day  were  required.  The  instruction 
must  have  been  mainly  elementary,  commentaries 
and  lexicons  were  few.  It  shows  the  poverty 
of  all  such  helps  that  the  "  library  contained  not 
even  a  valuable  Greek  lexicon,  and  hardly  anj- 
thing  better  in  Latin." 

In  his  second  year,  his  duties  as  instructor 
were  much  enlarged.  In  that  and  subsequent 
years  he  was  called  on  to  teach  most  of  the 
studies  in  the  curriculum,  and  to  instruct  all  the 


32  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

classes  in  college.  He  wrote  lectures  on  rhetoric 
and  natural  philosophy.  The  limited  resources 
of  the  institution  compelled  such  a  concentration 
of  work  into  the  hands  of  a  single  teacher.  The 
work  in  any  one  of  these  departments  was  enough 
for  one  man's  powers  and  time.  It  marks  the 
great  advance  in  our  collegiate  institutions,  that 
no  such  arrangement  would  be  now  tolerated 
for  a  moment  in  any  well  ordered  college.  For 
Dr.  Wayland  himself  it  may  have  had  its  advan- 
tages. It  was  described  by  himself  as  "  a  re- 
view of  his  college  studies." 

Mainly  this  tutorship  was  of  advantage  to 
him  as  bringing  him  still  more  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  president  of  the  college,  Dr.  Nott. 
The  friendship  between  them  was  knitted  in 
daily  intercourse  and  lasted  through  life.  Dr. 
Wayland  was  strongly  impressed  by  those  quali- 
ties in  Dr.  Nott  which  gave  him  so  wide  an  in- 
fluence. After  Professor  Stuart,  no  other  man 
had  so  much  to  do  in  moulding  the  future  presi- 
dent of  Brown  University.  The  scholarship  of 
Professor  Stuart,  and  his  unrivaled  powers  as 
a  teacher,  found  as  supplementary  elements  in 
shaping  the  career  of  Dr.  Wayland,  the  large 
sagacity  and  the  practical  wisdom  of  Dr.  Nott. 

College  friendships  are  often  powerful  factors 
in  the  subsequent  life.  They  furnish  influences 
which  outlive  the  instructions  of  the  class-room. 


TUTORSHIP  AT   UNION  COLLEGE.  33 

The  attrition  of  mind  upon  mind  in  college- 
days  in  the  case  of  closely  associated  friends  is 
an  education  in  itself.  The  inner  history  of  the 
Oxford  movement,  so  deeply  affecting  the  future 
of  the  Church  of  England,  can  be  truly  read  only 
in  the  college  lives  of  the  remarkable  group  of 
endeared  friends  like  Keble  and  Pusey  and 
Newman.  The  college  classmates  with  whom 
Dr.  Wayland  was  brought  into  relations  of  in- 
timacy during  his  tutorship  were  Benjamin  P. 
Wisner,  subsequently  pastor  of  the  Old  South 
Church  in  Boston  ;  and  Alonzo  Potter,  afterward 
bishop  of  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania.  It  is 
through  the  gates  of  intellectual  sympathy  that 
often  the  subtlest  influences  come  upon  the  soul. 
This  sympathy  between  the  three  friends  was 
perfect.  The  bond  of  Christian  sympathy  also 
existed ;  and  thus  the  intellectual  and  moral 
character  of  every  member  of  the  little  group 
was  built  up  in  a  sort  of  mental  and  spiritual 
commonalty.  Every  one  fulfilled  a  high  and 
useful  career,  and  for  its  fulfillment,  the  college 
friendship  of  those  days  at  Union  College  se- 
cured essential  equipment.  For  Dr.  Wayland, 
this  tutorship  at  Union  College  was  a  providen- 
tial training  for  his  life-work  as  an  educator. 
It  gave  him  insight  into  the  interior  life  of  a 
coUege.  It  disclosed  to  him  existing  defects 
in  the  curriculum  of  studies.     It  developed  in 


34  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

him  his  natural  instincts  as  a  teacher.  It  re- 
vealed to  him  the  possibilities  for  good  in  such 
institutions,  as  seminaries  of  Christian  educa- 
tion. That  he  fulfilled  well  his  part  in  the  work 
intrusted  to  him  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  he 
was  later  in  life  recalled  to  an  important  profes- 
sorship, that  of  moral  philosophy. 

Meantime  his  friend  Wisner,  who  had  gone 
to  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  was  urging 
him  to  resume  theological  study  at  that  institu- 
tion. To  this,  indeed,  Dr.  Wayland  would  not 
have  been  averse.  Poverty  only  stood  in  the 
way.  In  a  little  gathering  of  theological  stu- 
dents in  the  room  of  Howard  Malcolm,  subse- 
quently a  distinguished  Baptist  clergyman,  casual 
mention  was  made  by  Mr.  Wisner  and  Mr. 
William  B.  Sprague,  afterward  so  well  known  as 
Dr.  Sprague  of  Albany,  of  the  rare  ability  and 
poverty  of  the  tutor  in  Union  College.  Mr. 
Malcolm,  who  had  wealth,  generously  offered  to 
advance  the  means  for  completing  his  theological 
education  at  Princeton.  The  offer  was  promptly 
communicated.  No  reply  came  for  some  time. 
At  last  it  was  received,  and  an  explanation  of 
the  delay  was  given.  The  letter  had  been  missent 
to  Canandaigua.  In  the  interval  he  had  com- 
mitted himself  to  remaining  at  Union  College. 
"  If,"  Dr.  Wayland  said  in  his  reply,  "  the  facts 
communicated  in  your  letter  had  been  known  a 


TUTORSHIP  AT  UNION  COLLEGE.  35 

few  days  sooner,  I  should  by  this  time  have  been 
at  Princeton."  Commenting  on  the  incident 
long  afterwards  in  the  Reminiscences,  he  says, 
"  My  destiny  in  life  has  been  materially  affected 
by  the  blunder  of  a  postmaster :  and  I  believe 
that  this  blunder  was  directed  by  infinite  wis- 
dom and  love.  I  could  not  but  look  upon  it  as 
a  special  providence,  intimating  my  duty  in  a 
manner  not  to  be  misunderstood.  With  this 
event,  all  my  plans  for  pursuing  study  at  a 
theological  seminary  ended."  He  had  now  en- 
tered upon  his  fourth  year  as  tutor,  —  the  last 
as  it  turned  out.  There  was  in  store  for  him'^j 
another  and  very  different  training  for  the  work 
of  the  ministry.  That  it  left  lasting  and  bene- 
ficial influences  on  his  character  there  is  no  room 
to  doubt.  He  was  thrown  directly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  one  of  those  deep  religious  movements 
called  "  revivals,"  of  which  Dr.  Asahel  Nettleton  j 
was,  humanly  speaking,  the  centre  and  soul.  All 
accounts  agree  in  ascribing  to  Dr.  Nettleton  gifts 
of  the  highest  order  for  such  a  work.  He  knew 
just  as  well  how  to  guard  against  the  abuses  of 
"  revivalism  "  as  how  to  guide  its  forces.  He 
relied  on  intelligent  views  of  divine  truth  far 
more  than  on  passionate  appeals  in  his  preach- 
ing. He  was  discreet  in  his  methods,  and  had 
the  power  of  insight  into  character,  which  in  his 
private  interviews  seemed  like  intuition.     The 


36  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

religious  awakening  under  Dr.  Nettleton  which 
had  begun  in  a  neighboring  town,  extended  to 
the  college.  Into  its  promotion  and  guidance  Dr. 
Wayland  threw  himself  heart  and  soul.  He  be- 
came personally  acquainted  with  Dr.  Nettleton, — 
was  in  close  intercourse  with  him.  The  result 
of  participation  in  this  religious  work  and  of  his 
intercourse  with  Dr.  Nettleton  soon  became  ap- 
parent. His  desire  to  preach  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  was  quickened.  He  at  once  resolved  to 
forego  the  additional  theological  training  from 
which  want  of  means  had  debarred  him,  and  to 
begin  the  work  of  the  ministry  with  such  re- 
sources as  he  could  command.  He  gave  what 
time  could  be  spared  from  college  duties,  with 
which  he  had  become  familiar,  to  some  special 
preparation  for   the  sacred  office. 

This  preparation  seems  to  have  consisted 
partly  in  a  review  of  studies  commonly  pursued 
by  candidates  for  the  ministry,  partly  in  the 
construction  of  sermons  under  the  supervision  of 
Dr.  Nott.  It  was  made  still  more  practical  by 
an  exercise  of  his  gifts  as  a  preacher  in  supply- 
ing "  the  little  church  at  Burnt  Hills,  a  village 
between  Schenectady  and  Ballston."  This  hom- 
iletic  training  was  evidently  of  no  mean  sort. 
Dr.  Nott  himself  was  a  preacher  of  great  gifts, 
also  a  kind  and  faithful  critic. 

Beside  the  homiletic  instruction  which  he  had 


TUTORSHIP  AT   UNION   COLLEGE.  37 

from  Dr.  Nott,  Dr.  Wayland  gained  mucli  from 
the  exercise  of  his  gifts  in  out  -  stations.  He 
used  both  extemporaneous  and  written  dis- 
courses. He  "  wrote  and  rewrote  with  endless 
care  and  anxiety."  This  blending  of  the  two 
methods  left  its  mark  upon  him  as  a  preacher. 
It  is  doubtful  whether,  in  any  of  the  schools,  he 
could  have  had  a  better  training  for  the  pulpit. 

He  had  now  been  four  years  in  Union  Col- 
lege as  a  tutor.  As  his  mind  was  made  up  to 
enter  on  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry, 
there  was  no  inducement  for  him  to  continue  in 
his  tutorial  office.  He  announced  his  purpose 
of  resigning  it  at  the  close  of  the  academic  year. 
The  question  before  him  was  what  should  be 
the  field  of  his  future  labor  as  a  preacher.  His 
attention  was  first  drawn  to  the  West,  which 
then  meant  nothing  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and 
little  beyond  Lake  Erie.  But  Providence  had 
chosen  for  him  an  eastern  field. 

His  friends  had  not  forgotten  him.  Dr. 
Wisner  had  been  called  ta-  Boston  as  pastor  of 
the  Old  South  Church,  /it  happened  that  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  that  city  was  without  ay 
pastor.  Dr.  Wisner  urged  upon  the  church  of- 
ficers the  consideration  of  his  friend  Wayland 
for  the  place.  That  church  had  enjoyed  the 
ministrations  of  a  succession  of  gifted  preach- 
ers, notablv  those  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stillman.    Not 


38  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

unnaturally,  therefore,  their  aim  was  high  in 
the  choice  of  a  pastor.  Making  all  abatements 
for  an  overweening  sense  of  the  importance 
of  the  position,  it  was  evident  that  none  but  a 
man  of  strength  and  tact  could  fill  it.  Dr.  Wis- 
ner's  commendation  of  his  friend  was  listened 
to  favorably.  An  invitation  was  sent  to  the 
young  preacher,  asking  him  to  visit  the  church 
and  preach  to  them  for  a  season.  This  invitation 
was  accepted,  and  in  the  spring  vacation  of  that 
year,  1821,  he  came  to  Boston  taking  with  him 
eight  sermons,  the  product  of  his  winter's  toil 
in  sermon  writing.  The  eight  sermons  were 
preached  on  four  successive  Sundays.  He  had 
interviews  with  the  leading  members  of  the 
church,  who  were  men  of  sound  discernment,  calm 
judgment,  and  influential  character.  Theolog- 
ical matters  were  freely  discussed.  It  seems  to 
have  been  a  sort  of  theological  examination  to 
which  Dr.  Wayland  in  no  wise  objected.  There 
was  hesitation,  however,  as  to  extending  an  im- 
mediate call.  A  second  visit  was  proposed  by 
some.  This  he  promptly  declined.  The  wiser 
heads  then  brought  the  matter  to  an  issue. 
It  resulted  in  a  call  to  become  the  pastor,  not, 
indeed,  by  any  means  unanimous.  He  had  se- 
cured, fortunately,  the  support  of  the  influential 
men.  The  minority  were  in  favor  of  a  candi- 
date with  more  popular  gifts. 


BOSTON  PASTORATE.  39 

His  friends,  Dr.  Nott  and  Professor  Stuart, 
treated  this,  however,  as  a  matter  of  slight  con- 
sequence. They  had  taken  his  measure  and  they 
were  sure  of  his  ultimate  success.  Professor 
Stuart  urged  his  acceptance  on  broader  grounds 
than  simply  the  building  up  of  the  decadent 
church.  "  The  cause  here,"  he  wrote,  "  abso-^ 
lutely  and  imperiously  demands  a  man  like  you, 
who  has  depth  of  exegetical  lore,  who  can  meet 
the  Unitarians  on  ground  where  he  is  unlikely 
to  feel  his  inferiority,  or  be  put  to  the  blush. 
Besides  Providence  College  [Brown  University] j 
must  have  such  trustees,  or  it  is  ruined  forever. 
Radical  changes  must  be  made  in  order  to  save 
it.  You  want  more  weight,  more  literature  here, 
to  do  this." 

Under  the  advice  of  these  friends,  and  rely- 
ing on  the  wisdom  and  fidelity  of  those  who  had 
called  him,  and  who  never  afterward  failed  him, 
the  call  was  accepted.  At  the  close  of  the  college"! 
year  he  came  to  Boston ;  was  ordained  pastor 
August  21,  1821.  The  text  of  Dr.  Sharp's  ser- A 
mon  at  his  ordination  was  felicitously  chosen,  — 
1  Cor.  xvi.  10  :  "  Now  if  Timotheus  come,  see 
that  he  may  be  with  you  without  fear  :  for  he 
worketh  the  work  of  the  Lord,  as  I  also  do." 
The  problem  of  success  in  the  new  field  had  its 
dark  side.  In  eastern  Massachusetts,  Unitari- 
anism  had  gained  great  headway,  through  legal 


V 


40  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

decisions  of  the  courts,  through  the  controlling 
influence  of  Harvard  College,  and  through  the 
jpower  of  wealth  and  social  influence  combined. 
I  In  Boston  its  influence  was  predominant.  All 
'  the  older  Congregational  churches  save  the  Old 
South  had  become  Unitarian.  Congregationalism 
was  struggling  hard  to  recover  its  lost  ground, 
and  waxed  valiant  in  fight.  Besides  its  churches 
there  were  but  three  Episcopal,  two  Methodist, 
and  three  Baptist  churches,  who  represented  the 
ancient  faith.  The  pulpits  of  the  Unitarian 
churches  were  all  in  the  hands  of  able  men, 
gifted  preachers  and  scholars  of  high  reputation, 
while  the  congregations  which  filled  them  on 
every  Sabbath  were  composed  of  all,  or  nearly 
all,  the  wealthier  and  more  cultivated  classes  in 
the  town,  then  having  a  population  of  over  forty 
thousand  inhabitants. 

The  church  to  which  he  had  been  called  was 
not  in  some  respects  an  inviting  field  of  labor. 
Its  house  of  worship  was  unattractive  in  archi- 
tecture, and,  being  at  the  North  End,  was  ill 
situated.  The  population  had  begun  to  drift 
away  to  more  attractive  parts  of  the  city.  The 
congregation  had  lessened  in  numbers,  and  its 
harmony  was  disturbed.  The  minority,  opposed 
to  calling  Dr.  Wayland,  were  not  disposed  to 
heed  the  teachings  of  Dr.  Sharp  in  the  ordina- 
tion sermon.      They  adopted  more  than  ques- 


BOSTON    PASTORATE.  41 

tionable  methods  of  attack  on  the  new  ministry. 
Anonymous  letters  were  sent  to  the  pastor. 
Some  forsook  attendance  on  his  ministry,  trav- 
eling some  miles  out  of  town  to  hear  the  man 
preach  on  whom  they  had  set  their  hearts.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  find  an  instance  where  min- 
isterial success  was  achieved  in  the  face  of 
greater  obstacles.  Dr.  Wayland  met  them  with 
the  practical  wisdom  which  was  a  leading  trait 
of  his  mind.  Anonymous  letters  were  quickly 
burned  and  forgotten.  When  it  was  proposed 
at  one  of  the  church  meetings  to  discipline  those 
members  who  had  forsaken  his  ministry  for  at- 
tendance elsewhere,  Dr.  "Wayland  firmly  opposed 
all  such  measures,  and  offered  to  facilitate  the 
attendance  of  the  poorer  members  elsewhere 
if  they  desired  it,  by  providing  carriages  for 
them,  his  own  purse  to  contribute  toward  the 
expense.  He  refused  to  be  told  who  were  the 
dissentients.  One  of  them  he  saved  from  fail- 
ure in  business,  by  interposing  in  his  behalf 
with  a  principal  creditor.  When  discipline  was 
necessary,  it  was  administered  in  the  tenderesfc 
and  calmest  spirit.  He  was  skillful  in  his  judg- 
ment as  to  measures,  and  accurate  in  that  as 
to  men.  He  sought  and  followed  the  advice  of 
such  men  as  Dr.  Baldwin  and  Dr.  Sharp.  He 
sought  also  to  promote  fraternal  union  among 
the  Baptist  churches.      His  relations  with  the 


42  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND, 

Unitarian  churches  were  friendly,  for  he  had  been 
wise  enough  to  engage  in  no  doctrinal  crusade 
against  them,  preaching  positive  truth  as  he  held 
it,  and  not  controversial  discourses.  Some  of 
his  best  friends  and  sincerest  admirers  were 
found  among  the  clergy  and  laity  of  that  body. 
The  pulpit  was,  however,  his  main  reliance  for 
ultimate  success.  He  was  sedulous  in  discharg:- 
ing  pastoral  duties.  They  came  hard  to  him. 
He  was  wanting  in  the  facility  of  social  inter- 
course which  makes  pastoral  visitation  easy.  He 
was  more  at  home  in  his  study  and  among  his 
books.  He  thus  held  on  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way,  gaining  slowly,  at  times  much  depressed  for 
want  of  more  rapid  and  visible  progress.  The 
early  years  of  that  Boston  pastorate  found  this 
problem  still  a  problem.  It  had  not  been 
wholly  solved.  Thus  passed  the  first  two  years 
of  his  ministry  in  Boston. 

Labors  outside  his  parish  cares  soon  began  to 
be  thrust  upon  him.  At  a  very  early  period 
his  ministerial  brethren  recognized  the  ability  in 
him  to  lead  his  denomination  along  its  chosen 
lines  of  advance.  \  In  1823,  he  was  appointed  an 
associate  editor  of  the  "  American  Baptist  Maga- 
U  zine,"  a  bimonthly,  of  which  Dr.  Thomas  Bald- 
win was  editor  in  chief,  and  of  which  Dr.  Way- 
land,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Baldwin,  assumed  the 
sole  charge.     The  principal  aim  of  the  magazine 


BOSTON  PASTORATE.  43 

was  to  diffuse  missionary  intelligence  among  the 
Baptist  churches,  both  as  to  the  foreign  and 
home  fields.  But  along  with  this  were  original 
articles  discussing  the  subjects  of  denominational 
interest.  It  held  the  same  position  among  the 
Baptists  that  the  "  Panoplist "  did  among  the 
Congregationalists.  The  need  of  information  re- 
garding missionary  efforts  was,  in  the  infancy  of 
foreign  missions,  if  possible,  of  greater  urgency 
than  now.  This  editorship  of  the  "Baptist 
Magazine  "  is  the  earliest  public  evidence  of  Dr. 
Wayland's  undying  interest  in  the  subject.  It 
had  been  kindled  at  his  mother's  knee.  It  grew 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  his  life.  There 
was  one  series  of  articles  written  by  him  for  the 
magazine  which  deserves  notice  as  showing  the 
changed  opinions  of  his  later  years.  "I  am 
built  railroad  fashion,"  he  was  wont  to  say.  "  I 
can  go  forward  if  necessary,  and  if  necessary  I 
can  take  the  back  track  —  but  I  cannot  go  side- 
ways." After  discussing  the  general  subject  of 
associations,  their  province,  their  ends,  and  their 
defects,  he  proceeded  to  advocate  a  federation  of 
the  associations  into  a  general  convention.  "  The 
associations  in  one  State  could  easily  send  dele- 
gates to  a  state  convention.  This  would  em- 
body all  the  information  and  concentrate  the 
energies  of  a  State.  These  state  conventions 
could  send  delegates  to  a  general  convention,  and 


44  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

thus  the  whole  denomination  might  be  brought 
into  concentrated  and  united  action."  By  a 
system  of  delegates  and  correspondence  he 
thought  "  the  Baptists  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic 
would  be  united  in  a  solid  phalanx." 

He  abandoned  these  views  wholly.  In  his 
"  Notes  on  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  Bap- 
tist Churches,"  he  has  stated  his  change  of  view 
with  unreserved  freedom. ^  After  reviewing  the 
history  of  the  movement,  he  adds  these  words, 
"  I  now  rejoice  exceedingly  that  the  whole  plan 
failed,  and  that  it  failed  through  the  sturdy  com- 
mon sense  of  the  masses  of  our  brethren." 

He  was  now  to  render  a  far  more  important 
service  to  the  Baptist  churches,  and  indeed  to 
Christendom,  than  that  of  conducting  any  publi- 
cation of  missionary  intelligence.  His  editorial 
labors  had  inspired  and  qualified  him  for  the 
task  before  him.  When  he  entered  upon  it  he 
did  not  foresee  the  great  issue  in  missionary  re- 
sults he  was  set  in  the  providence  of  God  to 
meet.     "  He  builded  better  than  he  knew." 

He  had  been  chosen  to  preach  the  annual  ser- 
mon before  the  Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  Boston.  The  custom  had  been  fruitful 
of  good  results,  but  hitherto  these  results  were 
mainly  local  and  temporary.  The  audience 
gathered  on  such  occasions^  was  composed  mainly 

1  Section  31,  p.  183. 


BOSTON  PASTORATE.  45 

of  attendants  upon  the  three  Baptist  churches  of 
the  city,  with  such  others  as  the  special  service 
might  tempt  or  the  preacher  attract.  No  one 
dreamed  that  the  coming  sermon  was  to  have 
the  Christian  world  for  its  audience,  and  mark 
an  epoch  in  the  progress  of  missionary  effort. 

The  evening  came  for  its  delivery  ;  the  even- 
ing of  Sunday,  October  26,  1823.  It  was  rainy 
and  cold.  The  northeast  wind  of  the  New  Eng- 
land coast  seemed  to  chill  the  small  audience 
that  found  its  way  through  the  storm  to  the 
meeting-house  of  the  First  Baptist  Church.  It 
chilled  also  the  preacher,  who  wore  his  great  coat 
through  the  service.  Without  and  within  the 
atmosphere  was  depressing.  "His  manner  in 
the  pulpit  was  unattractive  ;  he  was  tall,  lean, 
angular,  spoke  with  but  little  action,  rarely  with- 
drawing his  hands  from  his  pockets,  save  to  turn 
a  leaf,  his  eye  seldom  meeting  the  sympathetic 
eye  of  the  audience."  So  his  biographers  have 
described  his  ordinary  appearance  and  manner 
in  the  pulpit.  The  majestic  personal  presence 
of  later  years  had  not  then  been  reached. 

The  appointment  had  to  be  met,  the  duty  gone 
through  with.  And  so  the  preacher  rose,  read 
the  text,  Matthew  xiii.  38,  "The  field  is  the 
world,"  announced  his  theme  to  be  the  "  Moral 
Dignity  of  the  Missionary  Enterprise,"  deliv- 
ered the   sermon,  dismissed  the  audience,  and 


46  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

went  to  his  home  utterly  depressed  at  what 
seemed  to  him  a  dead  failure.  On  the  morning 
following  he  said  to  a  friend,  "  It  was  a  com- 
plete failure.     It  fell  perfectly  dead." 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  the  scope,  the 
bearing,  and  the  ultimate  impression  made  by 
this  discourse,  unless  the  condition  of  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise  at  that  date  be  considered. 
It  had  been  lighting  "its  way  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  to  the  confidence  of  the  churches  and  of 
the  community.  Public  opinion  had  to  be  con- 
verted to  its  favor.  That  had  assumed  a  per- 
manent antagonism,  which  found  expression  and 
countenance  in  Sydney  Smith's  sharp  attack  on 
Missions,  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review,"  as  endan- 
gering the  lives  of  all  who  went  on  them,  as  in 
fact  wanton  and  wicked  waste.  One  of  the  direc- 
tors of  the  East  India  Company,  when  the  ques- 
tion of  permitting  Christian  missionaries  to  enter 
their  domain  came  up,  said,  "  He  would  see  a  band 
of  devils  let  loose  in  India,  rather  than  a  band  of 
missionaries."  Statesmen  like  Fox  uttered  pub- 
lic disapproval  of  missionary  effort.^  Only  ten 
years  before  the  delivery  of  this  discourse  the 
Massachusetts  legislature  had  refused  to  grant 
a  charter  to  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions.    Men  of  high  posi- 

1  Lectures  on  Baptist  History,  pp.  300,  301,  by  William  R. 
Williams. 


BOSTON  PASTORATE,  47 

tion  opposed  the  application  stubbornly.  It  was 
at  last  obtained  only  by  the  persistent  efforts  of 
its  friends.^  Nor  had  the  opposition  died  away. 
The  passage  in  the  introductory  part  of  the  ser- 
mon alluding  to  this  fact  must  be  kept  in  mind, 
if  the  aim  and  the  success  of  the  discourse  are 
to  be  rightly  judged. 

After  an  allusion  to  the  prevalent  apathy  in 
regard  to  the  work  of  evangelizing  the  world, 
Dr.  Wayland  proceeded  to  say :  "  The  reason 
for  all  this  we  shall  not  on  this  occasion  pretend 
to  assign.  We  have  time  only  to  express  our 
regret  that  such  should  be  the  fact.  Confining 
ourselves,  therefore,  to  the  bearing  which  this 
moral  bias  has  upon  the  missionary  cause,  it  is 
with  pain  we  are  obliged  to  believe  that  there  is 
a  large  and  most  respectable  portion  of  our  fel- 
low-citizens, for  many  of  whom  we  entertain 
every  sentiment  of  personal  esteem,  and  to 
whose  opinions  on  most  other  subjects  ive  bow 
with  unfeigned  deference,  who  look  with  perfect 
ajmthy  upon  the  ptresent  system  of  exertions  for 
evangelizing  the  heathen ;  and  we  have  been 
greatly  misinformed  if  there  be  not  another, 
though  a  very  different,  class,  who  consider 
these  exertions  a  subject  for  ridicule?  Perhaps 
it  may  tend  somewhat  to  arouse  the  apathy  of 

1  Memorial  Volume  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  chap.  3,  pp.  71-78. 

2  The  italics  are  ours. 


48  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

the  one  party,  as  well  as  to  moderate  the  con- 
tempt of  the  other,  if  we  can  show  that  this  very 
missionary  cause  combines  within  itself  the  ele- 
ments of  all  that  is  sublime  in  human  pui-pose. 
Nay,  combines  them  in  a  loftier  proportion  than 
any  other  enterprise  which  was  ever  linked  with 
the  destinies  of  man." 

The  passage  italicized  is  the  key  to  this  dis- 
course. Viewed  thus,  it  is  adapted  to  its  pur- 
pose with  consummate  skill.  The  ornate  style, 
the  march  of  its  thought,  the  vividness  of  its 
pictures,  the  solemn  eloquence  of  its  periods, 
the  depth  and  strength  of  its  doctrinal  views,  are 
all  combined  to  make  a  single,  clear,  and  over- 
whelming impression,  and  that,  the  theme  as  an- 
nounced, the  moral  dignity  of  the  missionary 
enterprise.  It  was  composed  in  a  single  week, 
and  once  rewritten,  —  two  other  sermons  having 
been  written  the  same  week.  But  it  would  be  a 
great  mistake  to  infer  that  it  was  not  the  growth 
of  much  thought.  It  gathered  up  the  impressions 
accumulating  through  years.  The  sources  of 
its  cogent  eloquence  are  to  be  found  in  that  early 
interest  for  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  inspired  by  his  mother ;  "  in  the  admiring 
love  for  the  missionary  schemes,  inspired  in  him 
by  the  eloquence  of  Luther  Rice ;  in  the  many 
walks  to  South  Troy,  as  he  sought  to  gain  some- 
thing which  he  might  offer  to  the  cause  of  the 


BOSTON  PASTORATE.  49 

Redeemer ;  in  the  religious  fervor  kindled  anew 
by  Asahel  Nettleton  ;  in  the  stirring  news  from 
all  parts  of  the  mission  field  which  passed  be- 
fore his  eyes  as  editor  of  the  '  Baptist  Magazine,' 
and  especially  in  the  glowing  letters  by  which 
Judson  pleaded  with  Christendom  in  behalf  of 
the  millions  of  heathenism,  and  in  the  presence 
of  that  noblest  of  American  women,  the  wife  of 
Judson,  whose  tireless  energy  and  feminine  fas- 
cination inspired  by  a  holy  cause  and  a  divine 
love  had  kindled  in  him  a  sympathetic  fervor, 
and  whose  well-remembered  face  and  'heaven- 
directed  eye '  lent  inspiration  as  he  wrote."  ^ 

The  preacher  was  mistaken.  The  sermon  had 
not  fallen  dead.  Small  as  the  audience  was, 
there  were  some  discerning  hearers  who  knew 
what  the  pregnant  sentences  meant,  that  they 
were  words  for  the  hour  and  met  a  solemn  exi- 
gency in  the  progress  of  missionary  work.  It 
was  therefore  published.  The  response  was  im- 
mediate. The  impression  made  by  the  discourse 
in  print  upon  the  Christian  public  was  profound. 

The  American  Tract  Society  enrolled  it  among 
their  permanent  publications.  A  year  or  two 
later  it  was  republished  in  England  with  a  com- 
mendatory paper,  by  Dr.  Ralph  Wardlaw,  and 
in  England,  as  in  America,  stimulated  the  zeal, 
raised  the  courage,   and   broadened    the  views 

1  Life  of  Wayland,  vol.  i.  pp.  169-170. 


60  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

of  all  friends  of  the  missionary  enterprise.  It 
was  translated  into  continental  tongues,  and  did 
its  work  there  as  in  England.  No  more  sneers 
at  missionary  effort  were  uttered,  at  least  by 
Christian  ministers  like  Sydney  Smith.  No 
more  apologies  were  made  for  undertaking  a 
really  heroic  work.  Christian  missions  needed 
a  defense.  It  had  been  fully  given.  A  half 
century  later,  Max  Miiller,  in  the  nave  of  West- 
minster Abbey,  gave  a  lecture  on  missions,  which 
in  tone  is  identical  with  that  of  Dr.  Wayland's 
Missionary  Discourse. 

Eighteen  months  later  he  preached  two  ser- 
mons on  the  Duties  of  an  American  Citizen, 
which  at  once  attracted  attention.  The  first  dis- 
cussed "the  present  intellectual  and  political 
condition  of  the  nations  of  Europe ; "  the  sec- 
ond, "  the  relation  which  this  country  sustains 
to  the  nations  of  Europe."  Both  exemplify 
the  broad,  generalizing  habit  of  his  mind  in 
dealing  with  political  questions  from  the  reli- 
gious standpoint.  Both  show  his  watchfulness 
as  an  observer  of  events  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  his  intense  love  of  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom. In  the  conclusion  of  the  second,  he  al- 
luded to  the  probability  that  "  some  of  [those] 
who  now  hear  me  will  see  fifty  millions  of  souls 
enrolled  on  the  census  of  these  United  States." 
It  was  a  bold  prophecy,  but  more  than  fulfilled. 


BOSTON  PASTORATE.  51 

Two  master  passions  controlled  Dr.  Wayland's 
life;  one  was  love  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
the  other  was  zeal  for  humane  effort.  His  reli- 
gion was  broadened  by  his  philanthropy,  and 
his  philanthropy  was  inspired  and  trained  by  his 
religion.  If  the  Missionary  Discourse  exhibits 
in  its  full  play  the  first  of  these  passions,  the 
sermons  on  the  Duties  of  an  American  Citizen 
exhibit  the  second,  with  equal  felicity  of  argu- 
ment, equal  vividness  of  illustration,  and  possi- 
bly with  a  higher  stamp  of  oratory. 

The  publication^ of  these  discourses  fixed  atl 
once  Dr.  Wayland's  position.  They  gave  him  a 
name  abroad  as  well  as  at  home.  Not  yet  thirty 
years  of  age,  he  had  gained  his  place  as  the 
leading  Baptist  divine  of  this  country.  His  fel- 
low-Christians of  other  communions  hailed  him 
as  a  leader  in  religious  thought  and  activity. 
His  voice  was  now  to  be  heard  on  all  public  ques- 
tions affecting  the  interests  of  his  denomination,j 
and  soon  on  the  broader  arena  of  education  and 
philanthropy.  His  growing  reputation  made  him 
an  influential  member  of  committees  and  con- 
ventions. This  work  engrossed  his  time  and 
diverted  him  from  studies  in  which  he  was  in- 
terested. He  subsequently  deplored  this  as  so 
much  distraction  from  the  higher  pastoral  work. 
It  seems,  withal,  the  necessary  incident  to  such 
positions  as  he  was  holding,  and  is  not  without 


62  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

compensating  advantages  in  practical  training, 
besides  on  some  occasions  giving  opportunities 
of  very  valuable  service.  A  signal  instance  of 
this,  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Way  land,  is  found  in  his 
rescue  of  the  Triennial  Convention  from  what 
seemed  a  fatal  divergence  from  its  original  plan 
and  purpose.  This  body  had  been  founded  in 
1814  for  a  single  object,  —  sending  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen.  It  was  a  representative  assembly, 
composed  "  not  of  representatives  of  churches 
as  such,  but  of  representatives  chosen  by  the 
contributors  to  foreign  missions." 

Soon,  however,  educational  projects  were  in- 
corporated into  its  scheme.  In  1817,  it  was 
voted  to  "  institute  a  classical  and  theological 
seminary, "  which  was  established  at  Philadel- 
phia. Next,  in  1821,  Columbian  College  was 
founded  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Matters  went  so 
far  in  this  direction  that  it  was  voted  to  "  loan 
ten  thousand  dollars  from  the  mission  funds  to 
assist  in  the  erection  of  the  Columbian  College." 

At  this  stage,  the  friends  of  foreign  missions, 
Dr.  Wayland  prominently  among  them,  were 
roused  by  what  seemed  to  them  an  endangering 
of  the  great  missionary  movement  by  diversion 
of  interest  from  it.  A  report  on  the  whole 
subject,  prepared  by  Dr.  Wayland,  and  found 
among  his  papers,  shows  him  resolute  and  armed 
against  the   project.      At  the  meeting  of  the 


BOSTON  PASTORATE.  53 

Triennial  Convention  held  in  New  York  city  in 
1826,  he  was  present  as  a  delegate.  The  sub- 
ject was  fully  canvassed  in  a  strong  debate.  In 
that  debate  he  took  a  leading  part.  As  the 
author  of  the  great  missionary  sermon  his  coun- 
sels would  have  carried  weight.  But  his  ability 
in  debate,  his  "  cool,  conclusive  reasonings,"  to 
quote  the  language  of  Dr.  Baron  Stow,  and  his 
eminent  fairness  of  mind,  brought  back  the  con- 
vention to  its  original  purpose.  Young  as  he 
was,  he  was  looked  up  to  as  a  sagacious  and  safe 
leader  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  He  was  gaining 
in  point  of  influence  by  his  participation  in  such 
labors  all,  and  more  than  all,  he  was  losing  in 
the  acquisitions  of  his  study. 

The  ministry  in  Boston  continued  till  the  sum- 
mer of  1826.  It  was  hard,  uphill  work.  Not- 
withstanding the  reputation  he  had  gained,  and 
despite  his  unremitting  and  devoted  toils  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  the  parish,  there  was  no  marked 
growth  in  the  congregation  to  which  he  was 
ministering.  His  church  was  badly  located. 
"  Downtown  churches, "  then  as  now,  contend 
against  great  odds.  He  proposed  its  removal  to 
a  more  attractive  site,  with  a  new  church  edi- 
fice. The  project  of  removal  met  with  no  re- 
sponse. He  had  been  married  in  the  year 
previous  (1825)  to  Miss  Lucy  L.  Lincoln,  and 
was  living  on  a  very  meagre  salary.     There  was 


54  FRANCIS   WAYLANn. 

no  prospect  of  any  increase.  The  outside  cares, 
apart  from  his  proper  parish  work,  were  en- 
grossing and  exhausting.  Though  he  was  deeply 
attached  to  his  people,  and  his  people  were 
equally  attached  to  him,  he  had  evidently 
reached  a  point  where  other  openings  for  work 
would  be  considered  if  they  presented  them- 
selves. 

When,  therefore,  in  the  spring  of  1826,  his 
friend  Dr.  Nott  wrote,  asking  whether  he  would 
accept  the  professorship  in  Union  College  made 
vacant  by  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Alonzo  Potter, 
he  was  in  a  mood  to  consider  the  matter  favor- 
ably. After  some  deliberation,  he  decided  to 
accept  the  appointment,  and  at  the  monthly 
meeting  of  the  church,  in  July,  he  resigned  the 
pastoral  charge.  In  his  Reminiscences,  Dr. 
Wayland  made  the  following  comments  upon 
this  important  step  in  his  career.  It  was  a 
turning-point  in  his  life.  He  had  been  in  un- 
conscious training  for  a  post  very  different  in 
its  labors,  but  for  which  such  a  training  was 
a  solid  and  valuable  equipment.  It  is  evident 
that  he  looked  back  upon  the  scene  of  his  early 
pastoral  labors  with  the  changed  vision  of  years. 
But  the  heart  of  a  Christian  pastor  beat  in  that 
sturdy  bosom  to  its  last  throb. 

"  When  I  resigned  my  place,  it  was  a  matter 
of  great  surprise,  and  I  believe  of  sincere  pain, 


BOSTON  PASTORATE,  65 

to  my  people.  I  found  that  they  loved  me  much 
better  than  I  had  supposed ;  indeed  had  I  known, 
before  I  was  pledged,  how  sincerely  they  were 
attached  to  me,  I  think  I  should  never  have  left 
them.  This  attachment  has  continued  to  the 
present  day.  No  member  of  that  church  or  con- 
gregation, now  after  thirty-five  years,  ever  meets 
me  without  the  most  affectionate  recognition, 
and  none  love  me  more  than  those  who  at  first, 
bitterly  opposed  me.  I  was  settled  in  Boston 
for  five  years.  I  did  not  then  understand  the 
value  of  the  element  of  time  in  producing  re- 
sults. I  supposed  that  changes  might  be  effected 
more  rapidly  than  was  actually  possible.  I  also 
underrated  the  effects  which  had  been  produced. 
Many  persons,  comparing  the  condition  of  the 
church  when  I  left  them  with  its  condition  when 
I  entered  on  my  ministry,  considered  my  labors 
more  than  commonly  useful." 

Dr.  Wayland's  estimate  of  his  Boston  ministry 
as  given  in  the  Reminiscences  is  not  favorable. 
His  criticism  of  it  is  both  severe  and  sweeping. 
He  condemns  his  manner  of  preaching,  "  read- 
ing his  sermons  rather  than  preaching  without 
manuscript."  He  calls  it  the  "  great  error  of 
[his]  life  as  a  preacher."  He  condemns  also  his 
sermons,  as  lacking  in  the  simple  and  homely 
address  essential  to  true  popular  effect,  and  as 
constructed  too  much  on  lines  of  an  ambitious. 


66  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

intellectual  display.  He  was  equally  severe  as  a 
critic  upon  his  pastoral  work.  "I  also  erred, 
during  my  ministry,  in  respect  to  visiting  my 
people.  From  the  amount  of  outdoor  religious 
business,  I  had  but  scant  time  for  this  duty,  es- 
pecially during  the  last  part  of  my  settlement.  .  .  . 
I  also  erred  in  the  manner  of  it.  I  did  not  deal 
faithfully  enough  with  my  people."  He  expresses 
.very  keen  regrets  over  his  absorption  in  eccle- 
siastical matters  outside  his  parish  work,  espe- 
cially his  labors  in  connection  with  the  "Tri- 
ennial Convention,  the  State  Convention,  and 
the  Magazine." 

Such  a  review  of  his  Boston  pastorate  is  too 
disparaging.  As  to  the  "written"  sermons, 
and  "  reading "  them  instead  of  extempore  dis- 
course, it  is  very  questionable  whether  Dr.  Way- 
land  could  ever  have  influenced  an  audience 
more  by  the  exchange  of  method.  As  to  his 
pastoral  work,  surely  the  pastor  who  could  recall 
"edifying  religious  conversation  with  members 
of  [his]  church  over  the  wash-tub"  has  not  much 
to  reproach  himself  with  in  the  line  of  duty. 
As  to  the  outside  labors  with  all  their  time-ab- 
sorbing demands,  he  should  have  remembered 
that  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Boston  was 
made  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  not  the  king- 
dom of  God  for  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Boston.    He  was  marked  by  the  finger  of  God's 


BOSTON  PASTORATE,  57 

Providence  for  a  public  man,  a  leader  of  the 
people.  The  Divine  Providence,  which  never 
puts  an  untrained  instrument  to  do  the  work  of 
a  Moses  or  a  John  the  Baptist,  gave  him  his 
training  very  largely  in  the  labors  outside  the 
parish  visitations,  in  the  chair  of  the  editor,  in 
the  sessions  of  committees,  and  in  the  debates 
of  conventions. 

In  his  "  Letters  on  the  Ministry  of  the  Gos- 
pel," Dr.  Wayland  accents  the  criticism  on  his 
Boston  pastorate  still  more  strongly .^  No  one 
will  for  a  moment  question  his  absolute  sincer- 
ity. It  only  indicates  that  his  ideal  of  the  min- 
istry became  higher  and  higher  the  more  he 
studied  the  workings  of  our  actual  Christianity. 
There  were  no  such  criticisms  passed  by  others 
upon  his  ministerial  career.  The  Boston  minis- 
try was  begun  under  very  great  difficulties  in  the 
face  of  considerable  opposition.  It  had  ended 
for  him  in  an  assured  and  advancing  reputation 
as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  in  a  sound  if  not 
brilliant  success  in  building  up  the  church  under 
his  care,  in  a  united  and  working  parish. 

In  the  same  work,^  Dr.  Wayland  says  "in  ex- 
changing the  ministry  for  the  work  of  educa- 
tion, though  I  acted  with  the  sanction  of  all  my 
brethren,  I  think,  I  erred."    It  would  be  useless 

1  Letter  X.,  p.  197  et  seq. 

2  Letters  on  the  Christian  Ministry,  p.  201. 


58  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

to  speculate  on  what  he  might  have  done  had  he 
remained  in  his  Boston  pulpit,  or  if  he  had  "  soon 
returned  to  the  ministry  to  commence  it  under 
different  auspices."  ^  That  he  would  have  been 
an  eminent  and  eminently  faithful  preacher  and 
pastor  is  clear.  That  he  would  have  been  a  wise 
and  capable  denominational  leader  is  manifest. 
But  the  currents  of  his  life  were  to  flow  in  dif- 
ferent channels.  He  did  not  know  then  that 
Divine  Providence  intended  his  main  work  to 
be  on  wholly  different  lines,  nor  that  when  he 
started  for  Schenectady,  he  took  the  first  step  in 
the  new  direction.^  He  went  to  Union  College  in 
September,  1826,  leaving  for  a  time  his  family 
in  Boston.  He  entered  at  once  on  his  office  as 
Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy,  temporarily  also 
filling  the  chair  of  Mathematics  and  that  of  Nat- 
ural Philosophy^  His  work  opened  pleasantly. 
He  resumed  his  former  occupation  as  teacher 
with  ease  and  readiness.  Here,  in  his  old  home, 
amid  endeared  and  cherished  relations,  especially 
with  Dr.  Nott,  the  president,  the  city  pastor  was 
merging  into  the  college  professor.  But  before 
he  had  been  fairly  launched  in  the  new  career. 
Dr.  Messer  resigned  the  Presidency  of  Brown 
University. 

1  Letters  on  the  Christian  Ministry,  p.  200. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY. 
1827-1840. 

Brown  University,  Providence,  Rhode  Isl- 
and, was  founded  in  1764.  Its  original  corpo- 
rate name  was  "  The  Trustees  and  Fellows  of 
the  College  or  University  in  the  English  Colony 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations  in 
New  England  in  America."  That  name  in  1804 
was  changed  to  Brown  University,  in  recognition 
of  the  munificent  gifts  to  the  college  from  Nicho- 
las Brown.  While  the  charter  provided  that  the 
President  "  shall  forever  be  of  the  denomination 
called  Baptists  or  Anti-psedobaptists,"  it  also 
provided  in  its  government  for  a  minority  repre- 
sentation of  other  religious  bodies  ;  in  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  for  five  Friends  or  Quakers,  four 
Congregationalists,  five  Episcopalians,  the  re- 
maining twenty-two  "  forever  [to  be]  elected  of 
the  denomination  called  Baptists  or  Anti-psedo- 
baptists.  In  the  Board  of  Fellows,  it  provided 
for  eight  Baptists,  and  the  remaining  four  "  in- 
differently of  any  or  all  denominations." 

The  charter  also  enacted  and  provided  "  That 


60  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

into  this  liberal  and  catholic  institution  shall 
never  be  admitted  any  religious  tests  :  But,  on 
the  contrary  all  the  members  hereof  shall  for- 
ever enjoy  full,  free,  absolute,  and  uninterrupted 
liberty  of  conscience ;  And  that  the  place  of 
Professors,  Tutors,  and  all  other  offices,  the 
President  alone  excepted,  shall  be  free  and  open 
for  all  denominations  of  Protestants.  And  that 
youth  of  all  religious  denominations  shall  and 
may  be  freely  admitted  to  the  equal  advantages, 
emoluments,  and  honors  of  the  College  or  Uni- 
versity." This  charter  has  been  fitly  character- 
ized by  Professor  Kingsley,^  as  "  undoubtedly  in 
many  respects  one  of  the  best  college  charters 
in  New  England,"  and  the  institution  has 
throughout  its  history  deserved  the  name  of  a 
"catholic,  comprehensive,  and  liberal  institu- 
tion." 2 

In  the  Reminiscences,  Dr.  Wayland  mentions 
that  "  about  the  time  of  my  leaving  Boston,  Dr. 
Messer,  the  President  of  Brown  University,  was 
on  the  point  of  resigning.  I  had  been  urged  to 
become  a  candidate  for  the  office.  My  friends  in 
the  vicinity  of  Boston,  especially  Dr.  Sharp  and 
Dr.  Bolles,  pressed  it.  In  the  course  of  the  au- 
tumn, Dr.  Messer  resigned.  I  had  now  become 
very  pleasantly  situated  at  Schenectady.  My 
feelings,  however,  turned  toward  New  England, 

1  Life  of  Br.  Ezra  Stiles.  2  Charter. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       61 

and  the  hope  of  doing  something  for  my  own  de- 
nomination had  much  weight  with  me.  There 
was  some  doubt  as  to  the  election,  as  one  or  two 
candidates  beside  myself  had  been  presented.  I 
had  but  little  anxiety  about  the  result,  although 
the  uncertainty  was  annoying." 

He  was  unanimously  chosen  President  of 
Brown  University,  December  13,  1826,  his  dis- 
tinguished predecessors  having  been  James  Man- 
ning, Jonathan  Maxy,  and  Asa  Messer,  all  men 
of  high  endowments  and  exalted  character.  To 
preside  over  an  institution  so  catholic  in  the  tone 
and  terms  of  its  charter,  was  congenial  to  the 
spirit  and  training  of  Dr.  Wayland.  He  was 
glad  also  to  identify  his  fortunes  with  those  of 
a  community  founded  by  Roger  Williams.  None 
more  than  he  reverenced  the  traditions  of  Rhode 
Island.  Roger  Williams'  doctrine,^  "not  that 
men  of  various  beliefs  should  be  tolerated  by 
the  civil  power,  but  the  far  broader  and  more 
fruitful  principle  that  the  civil  power  has  no- 
thing whatever  to  do  with  religious  belief,  save 
when  it  leads  to  some  actual  violation  of  social 
order,"  was  a  doctrine  which  seemed  to  Dr. 
Wayland  a  foundation  principle  in  social  struc- 
ture. He  was  the  more  ready  to  take  charge  of 
the  principal  Baptist  College  in  the  country  that 
he  might  do  his  part  in  leading  his  denomination 

^  Discourse  on  Roger  Williams.     Professor  J.  L.  Diman- 


62  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

forward  in  the  great  educational  work  then  open- 
ing before  the  nation.^  Therefore  he  had  no 
hesitation  as  to  accepting  the  office  to  which  he 
had  been  called.  Resigning,  accordingly,  the 
chair  in  Union  College,  upon  whose  duties  he 
had  entered  in  the  autumn  of  1826,  he  began  his 
work  as  President  of  Brown  University  at  Prov- 
idence in  February,  1827. 

It  is  well  worthy  of  remark  that  Dr.  Wayland 
was  called  to  his  post  not  merely  by  the  suf- 
frages of  his  own  denomination.  He  was  the 
choice  of  a  wider  constituency  also ;  leading  Con- 
gregationalists,  like  Professor  Stuart  of  Andover, 
earnestly  urged  his  appointment.  Prominent 
newspapers  in  the  States  of  New  York,  Massachu- 
setts, and  Connecticut,  all  had  urged  his  election. 
They  had  been  impressed  with  Dr.  Wayland's 
ability  and  catholicity.  His  successful  work  as 
a  teacher  during  his  four  years  at  Union  College, 
and  his  recent  appointment  to  the  chair  of  Moral 
Philosophy  in  that  institution,  gave  further  basis 
for  their  opinions  of  his  fitness  for  the  place. 

^  "  At  present  (1887)  we  have  nineteen  institutions  for 
the  Colored  and  Indian  races,  fourteen  seminaries  and  high 
schools  for  the  coeducation  of  male  and  female,  twenty-seven 
institutions  for  female  education  exclusively,  and  six  theolog- 
ical seminaries  for  the  education  of  the  ministiy,  making  in  all 
[colleges  included],  weak  and  strong,  old  and  new,  an  aggregate 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  institutions  [of  learning]."  — 
Armitage's  History  of  the  Baptists. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.     63 

His  residence  at  Andover,  so  favorably  intro- 
ducing him  to  the  Congregationalists  of  Eastern 
Massachusetts,  an  important  constituency  of  the 
college,  was  also  a  preparation  for  the  successful 
incumbency  of  the  position. 

It  was  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of  the  in- 
stitution. It  had  declined  in  numbers.  The  re- 
quirements for  admission  had  become  very  lax. 
There  were  internal  dissensions  in  the  Faculty. 
The  discipline  of  the  students  was  of  the  looser 
sort.  Old  and  evil  customs  needed  uprooting. 
"  A  barrel  of  ale  was  always  kept  on  tap  in  the 
cellar,  to  which  all  under-graduates  had  free  ac- 
cess." In  fact,  the  reputation  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity in  its  own  community  seems  to  have  been 
at  a  low  ebb.  It  was  evident  that  reform  was 
needed;  reform  and  also  expansion  and  eleva- 
tion of  the  course  of  studies.  His  first  endeavor 
was  for  reform  in  discipline.  To  secure  this  he 
framed  a  new  set  of  college  laws.  He  insisted 
upon  a  more  systematic  and  careful  supervision 
of  the  students'  rooms  by  professors  and  tutors, 
who  were  required  to  occupy  apartments  in  the 
college  buildings.  He  banished  from  the  prem- 
ises all  spirituous  liquors.  He  obtained  "  power 
to  send  away  from  college  any  young  man 
whose  conduct  rendered  him  an  improper  asso- 
ciate for  his  fellow  -  students,  or  whose  further 
connection  with  his  class  could  be  of  no  use  to 


64  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

himself  or  his  friends.  It  was  understood  at 
once  that  a  firm,  strong  hand  was  on  the  helm. 
He  wasted  no  time  in  compromising  expedients. 
He  meant  to  have  it  distinctly  understood  that 
college  laws  must  be  obeyed;  it  was  made  en- 
tirely clear  to  the  under-graduate  mind  within 
a  few  months  after  his  accession  to  the  presi- 
dency. The  necessary  reforms  were  not  carried 
into  effect  without  opposition  from  without  and 
within.  This  took  Dr.  Wayland  by  no  surprise. 
His  administration  was  assailed  in  the  news- 
papers. He  read  them  and  maintained  a  wise 
and  absolute  silence.  Fortunately  for  him  the 
senior  class  responded  at  once  and  heartily  to 
these  efforts  to  advance  the  college,  morally  and 
intellectually.^  The  leading  members  of  the  col- 
lege corporation  agreed  with  his  views  and  stood 
by  him  in  his  efforts  to  carry  them  out.  And  while 
at  first  the  process  of  growth  was  not  brilliant, 
the  first  class  entering  under  the  new  administra- 
tion being  much  smaller  than  usual,  n^t  more 
than  one  half  the  number  of  the  previous  year, 
still  the  friends  of  the  administration  were  per- 
fectly confident  of  ultimate  success.  Meantime, 
Dr.  Wayland  had  begun  his  labors  as  a  pro- 
fessor. He  lectured  to  the  junior  and  senior 
classes  on  the  elements  of  Political  Economy, 

1  Letter  of  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford.   Life  of  Francis  Wayland  ^ 
vol.  i.  p.  221. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.     65 

Rhetoric,  Intellectual  Philosophy  and  Animal 
Physiology. 

The  question  of  his  success  in  administering 
his  office  was  not  long  an  open  one.  In  two 
years  that  success  was  demonstrated.  At  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  college  Corporation,  Sep- 
tember 30, 1829,  he  presented  a  report  in  behalf 
of  the  Faculty,  surveying  the  history  of  the  ad- 
ministration during  the  two  preceding  years,  and 
the  working  of  all  changes  introduced,  propos- 
ing, also,  further  changes  in  the  abolition  of 
long  winter  vacations.  In  the  report  submitted 
to  the  Corporation  the  year  following,  1830,  the 
course  of  the  administration  was  again  reviewed, 
and  the  progress  in  moral  order  and  mental  dis- 
cipline carefully  noted.  In  little  less  than  three 
years  it  was  evident  that  a  quiet  but  determined 
revolution  had  been  wrought.  In  that  time  Dr. 
Wayland  had  imbued  his  colleagues  in  the  Fac- 
ulty, his  associates  in  the  Corporation,  the  body 
of  the  sttidents,  and  to  a  great  extent  the  public, 
with  the  true  spirit  of  a  collegiate  system,  and 
what  is  more,  with  definite  and  fruitful  pur- 
poses of  expansion  for  the  university.  From  that 
time  onward  for  a  course  of  years  the  college 
grew  in  numbers,  in  resources,  and  in  influence. 

Dr.  Wayland  saw  at  a  glance  that  no  college 
could  do  its  proper  work  with  such  a  library  as 
Brown  University  then  possessed.     What  books 


66  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

it  contained  seem  to  have  been  kept  in  "  one  of 
the  projecting  rooms  of  University  Hall,"  and  the 
"  management  of  the  library,"  meagre  as  it  was, 
had  little  or  no  system.  In  the  report  of  1829 
to  the  Corporation,  he  drew  attention  to  the 
deficiency,  and  asked  for  an  annual  appropria- 
tion for  the  purchase  of  books.  This  was  fol- 
lowed three  years  later,  in  the  summer  of  1832, 
by  a  meeting  of  the  friends  of  the  college  to 
secure  a  permanent  fund  for  the  endowment  of 
the  library.  The  efforts  to  secure  this  were  suc- 
cessful, and  a  sum  collected  was  put  at  interest 
until  it  had  increased  to  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars. Brown  University  had,  however,  no  build- 
ing where  a  library  could  be  properly  housed. 
The  munificence  of  Hon.  Nicholas  Brown  fur- 
nished the  means  for  erecting  Manning  Hall,  to 
be  used  as  a  library  and  chapel.  There  the  new 
library  was  placed,  where  it  remained  till  its 
growth  demanded  the  new  building  erected  for  it 
in  recent  years.  The  library  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity has  no  superior  for  its  size.  It  owes  much  to 
the  labors  of  Professor  Charles  C.  Jewett ;  but 
it  must  stand  as  a  lasting  monument  of  Dr. 
Way  land's  foresight  and  activity.  His  belief  in 
libraries  as  a  leading  agency  in  education  was 
evinced  throughout  his  career. 

He  saw  also  that  scientific  studies  as  a  part 
of  the  college  curriculum  must  be  given  a  more 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.      67 

prominent  place,  and  facilities  for  their  prosecu- 
tion be  provided.  His  interest  in  them  had  been 
kindled  in  part  at  least  by  his  own  attempts  at 
scientific  teaching  in  Union  College.  He  also 
believed  strongly  in  their  disciplinary  value. 
Through  his  influence,  and  mainly  through  the 
generosity  of  Nicholas  Brown,  Rhode  Island 
Hall  was  erected  for  the  department  of  Natural 
Philosophy,  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  Geology, 
and  Natural  History.  No  college  now  would 
think  of  crowding  so  many  departments  of  sci- 
ence into  any  one  building.  But  scientific  study 
was  then  in  its  infancy  among  American  col- 
leges. The  provision  made  for  scientific  train- 
ing in  the  erection  of  Rhode  Island  Hall,  will,  if 
compared  with  the  provision  made  for  it  at  that 
date  in  other  institutions,  show  that  its  impor- 
tance was  fully  and  even  liberally  recognized  by 
President  Wayland. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  his  reform  of  the 
college  discipline.  All  his  earlier  administration 
was  characterized  by  it.  He  first  of  all  acknow- 
ledged the  obligation  laid  on  him  by  the  char- 
ter of  the  college  for  maintenance  of  sound  and 
thorough  disciplinary  measures,  "  and  above  all," 
so  the  charter  enjoined,  "  a  constant  regard 
[must]  be  paid  to,  and  effectual  care  taken  of, 
the  morals  of  the  college."  The  Reminiscences 
furnish  his  own  account  of  his  principles  and 


68  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

methods  in  this  department  of  college  adminis- 
tration. The  vital  importance  of  the  subject, 
the  tendency  to  lower  views  than  his,  now  some- 
what prevalent,  justify  an  extended  presentation 
of  his  views  on  the  subject. 

"  It  was  .  .  .  my  aim  to  have  no  laws  which 
could  not  be  shown  to  be  perfectly  reasonable, 
and  then  to  execute  those  laws  with  all  possible 
strictness  and  impartiality.^ 

"  Of  course  in  saying  this  I  assume  that  it  will 
be  understood  that  the  government  of  impulsive, 
thoughtless  young  men  is  different  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  adults.  It  must  of  necessity  be  kind, 
conciliatory,  persuasive,  or,  in  a  word,  parental. 
Penalty  must  be  visited  only  after  other  means 
of  restraint  and  correction  have  been  tried  in 
vain.  But  it  must  be  distinctly  understood  that 
when  these  have  proved  ineffectual,  punishment 

^  Dr.  Guild,  in  his  volume  Manning  and  Brown  University, 
states  that  the  laws  in  operation  for  all  the  earlier  history  of  the 
college  were  those  of  the  CoUeg-e  of  New  Jersey  "  somewhat 
modified.' '  These  laws  imposed  on  the  student  fines  of  four- 
pence  for  non-attendance  on  divine  service,  the  same  for  being 
out  of  his  room  on  Sunday  evenings,  five  shillings  for  gam- 
bling, and  also  for  bringing  into  his  room  wine,  metheglin,  or 
any  sort  of  spirituous  liquor  without  a  permit  from  the  presi- 
dent or  tutors.  The  last  of  these  laws,  number  twenty  -four,  pre- 
scribes that  "  no  member  of  the  college  shall  wear  his  hat  in  the 
college  at  any  time,  or  appear  in  the  dining-room  at  meal  time, 
or  in  the  hall  at  any  public  exercise,  or  knowingly  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  superiority  of  the  college,  without  an  upper  gar- 
ment and  having  shoes  and  stockings  tight. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       69 

will  come,  and  come  on  all  alike,  without  the 
shadow  of  partiality."  After  alluding  to  the 
importance  of  precedent  and  deliberation  in  each 
case,  he  continues :  — '■ 

"  I  know  that  all  this  seems  easy  to  he  under- 
stood and  easy  to  be  accomplished  ;  and  yet  it  is 
not  exactly  so.  What  needs  to  be  done  may  be 
readily  perceived.  But  when  the  doing  of  it  may 
destroy  the  prospects  of  a  young  man,  and  scat- 
ter to  the  winds  the  long-cherished  hopes  of 
parents,  that  measure  of  discipline  which  one 
knows  to  be  right  and  unavoidable  is  attended 
with  the  severest  pain.  I  never  attempted  an 
important  case  of  discipline  without  great  men- 
tal distress.  I  took  every  means  possible  to  es- 
cape it,  and  to  maintain  the  government  without 
harming  the  young  men.^  When,  however,  all 
other  means  had  been  tried  and  action  became 
necessary,  I  nerved  myself  to  the  task.  From 
that  moment  all  the  distress  was  over,  and  I  went 
through  it  so  coolly  that  I  believe  I  acquired  the 
reputation  of  being  a  stern,  unfeeling  discipli- 
narian, who  was  determined  to  carry  out  college 
regulations  regardless  of  the  pain  he  caused.  In 
this  respect  I  suppose  I  must  be  classed  among 

^  "  He  would  often  remind  us  [the  Faculty]  that  if  it  should 
become  necessary  to  send  the  young-  man  home  to  his  parents, 
he  must  be  able  to  say  that  the  college  had  done  its  best  to 
save  him."  —  Professor  Gammell,  in  Life  of  Wayland^  vol.  i. 
p.  293. 


70  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

those  unfortunate   men    who   think  themselves 
misunderstood." 

On  another  point  Dr.  Wayland's  views  were 
no  less  pronounced.  He  held  that  the  student, 
no  less  than  any  other  man,  is  amenable  to  the 
laws  of  the  land  ;  that  when  these  are  broken 
by  him,  he  must  be  held  accountable  to  the  civil 
authorities  ;  that  college  officers  should  not  shield 
him  "  from  the  consequences  of  the  violation 
of  municipal  regulations."  He  held,  in  fact, 
that  it  was  part  of  the  business  of  education  to 
train  students  for  the  duties  of  citizenship,  and 
that  the  student  character  and  position  were 
never  to  be  viewed  as  exempt  from  all  due  legal 
responsibilities.  These  views  of  college  disci- 
pline are  perhaps  now  regarded  as  old-fashioned 
and  to  be  supplanted  by  modern  ideas  of  en- 
larged freedom.  They  are  unquestionably  op- 
posed to  all  theories  of  self-government.  But  it 
would  be  a  grossly  mistaken  view  of  Dr.  Way- 
land's  discipline,  if  it  were  supposed  to  be  no- 
thing but  a  rigid  system  of  penalties.  He  re- 
sorted to  all  the  forces  of  moral  appeal.  He 
brought  higher  motives  than  simply  the  terrors 
of  suspension  or  expulsion  from  college  to  bear 
on  every  refractory  student.  He  held  firmly  to 
the  position  that  moral  and  mental  training  must 
go  together  in  order  to  any  culture  which  can 
stand  the  tests  of  actual  life.    He  made  so  much 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.     71 

of  discipline  because  thfe  lesson  of  obedience  to 
constituted  authority  is  not  secondary,  but  pri- 
mary, in  the  career  of  every  student.  He  brought 
to  the  administration  of  discipline  as  much 
thought  and  conscientious  fidelity  as  that  be- 
stowed on  class-room  work.  It  had  been  lodged 
mainly  in  bis  hands.  This  did  not  mean  that 
he  took  no  counsel  from  his  Faculty.  He  was 
accustomed  to  seek  this,  and  he  had  prudent 
advisers  in  that  body.  As  a  result  of  his  wise 
and  efficient  efforts  he  was  able  to  report  in 
two  years,  that  the  "  behavior  of  the  young  gen- 
tlemen of  the  college  has  been,  during  the  past 
year,  in  the  highest  degree  commendable.  Very 
few  instances  requiring  the  exercise  of  discipline 
have  occurred."  So  long  as  he  remained  in  the 
presidency,  these  views  were  maintained.  No 
remark  was  often er  quoted  by  him  than  that  of 
Dr.  Thomas  Arnold :  "  It  is  not  necessary  that 
this  should  be  a  school  of  three  hundred  or  one 
hundred  or  of  fifty  boys  ;  but  it  is  necessary  that 
it  should  be  a  school  of  Christian  gentlemen." 

So  far,  indeed,  from  deposing  moral  appeals 
from  their  true  place,  he  in  very  conspicuous 
and  impressive  method  exalted  them.  No  stu- 
dent of  Brown  University  during  his  presidency 
but  will  readily  recall  those  platform  addresses 
on  occasion  of  any  serious  breach  of  college  or- 
der.   They  formed  a  notable  characteristic  of 


72  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

Dr.  Waylaiid.  Most  graphically  have  they  been 
portrayed  by  Professor  George  I.  Chase  in  his 
Memorial  Address.  Every  graduate  of  Brown 
University  who  ever  heard  one  of  them  will  bear 
witness  to  the  fidelity  and  impressiveness  of  the 
picture. 

"  They  were  most  frequent  and  most  charac- 
teristic in  the  earlier  days  of  his  presidency. 
They  occurred,  usually,  immediately  after  even- 
ing prayers,  and  took  the  place  of  the  under- 
graduate speaking,  which  at  that  time  formed 
part  of  the  daily  college  programme.  The  inci- 
dents which  called  them  forth  were  some  irreg- 
ularities, or  accident  or  event,  which  seemed  to 
render  proper  the  application  of  the  moral  lever 
to  raise  the  standard  of  scholarship  or  character. 
We  all  knew  very  well  when  to  expect  them. 

"  As  the  students  then,  with  few  exceptions, 
lived  within  the  college  buildings,  and  took  their 
meals  in  Commons  Hall,  they  constituted,  much 
more  than  at  present,  a  community  by  themselves. 
When  gathered  in  the  chapel,  they  formed  a 
unique  but  remarkably  homogeneous  audience. 
President  Wayland  was  at  that  time  in  the  very 
culmination  of  his  powers,  both  physical  and  in- 
tellectual. His  massive  and  stalwart  form,  not 
yet  filled  and  rounded  out  by  the  accretions  of 
later  years,  his  strongly-marked  features  having 
still  the  sharp  outlines  and  severe  grace  of  their 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.       73 

first  chiseling,  his  piercing  eye  sending  from 
beneath  that  Olympian  brow  its  lordly  or  its 
penetrating  glances,  he  seemed,  as  he  stood  on 
that  stage  in  the  old  chapel,  the  incarnation  of 
majesty  and  power.  He  was  raised  a  few  feet 
above  his  audience,  and  so  near  to  them  that 
those  most  remote  could  see  the  play  of  every 
feature.  He  commenced  speaking.  It  was  not 
instruction  ;  it  was  not  argument ;  it  was  not 
exhortation.  It  was  a  mixture  of  wit  and  hu- 
mor, of  ridicule,  sarcasm,  pathos,  and  fun  ;  of 
passionate  remonstrance,  earnest  appeal  and 
solemn  warning,  poured  forth  not  at  random,  but 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  law  of  emotion,  to  which 
Lord  Kames  himself  could  have  added  nothing. 
The  effect  was  indescribable." 

Of  his  relations  to  the  student  in  the  class- 
room, mention  will  be  made  elsewhere.  But  his 
relations  to  his  colleagues  in  the  Faculty  were 
as  close  and  kindly  as  it  is  possible  for  such  to 
be.  The  success  of  any  administration  turns 
largely  upon  this.  Nothing  better  tests  the  na- 
tive qualities  of  leadership  than  such  a  post. 
The  art  cannot  be  acquired.  It  is  born  in  the 
man.  And  it  was  easily  seen  that  Dr.  Way- 
land  was  a  born  leader.  His  strong  and  clear 
judgment  inspired  the  confidence  of  his  sub- 
ordinates, whom,  indeed,  he  treated  as  his  as- 
sociates.    His  contagious  earnestness,  his  labo- 


74  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

rious  fidelity  as  a  college  officer,  brought  up  all 
his  colleagues  to  his  own  staudard.  He  had  able 
coadjutors.  They  caught  his  spirit  and  wrought 
under  him  with  a  will. 

One  of  the  first  reforms  he  introduced  was  in 
the  Faculty  itself.  On  assuming  charge  of  the 
institution  he  found  that  "  several  gentlemen 
had  performed  some  service  [in  teaching]  at  the 
same  time  that  they  lived  at  home  and  were 
engaged  in  other  vocations,  while  they  received 
nearly  as  large  compensation  as  those  whose 
whole  time  was  devoted  to  instruction."  He 
changed  all  this.  He  insisted  that  "  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Faculty  shall  devote  his  whole  time 
to  instruction."  It  was  a  necessary  demand  if 
the  college  was  to  be  lifted  into  any  position 
of  influence.  He  surrounded  himself  with  a 
small  band  of  teachers,  —  some  of  them  young 
men, — fully  imbued  with  his  own  spirit  and 
eagerly  seconding  his  efforts.  Such  names  as 
those  of  Professors  Goddard,  Caswell,  Chase,  and 
Gammell,  among  the  departed,  and  of  Profes- 
sor Lincoln,  still  among  the  living,  are  names 
of  men  without  whose  aid  Dr.  Way  land's  career 
could  not  have  been  possible.  It  may  be  said 
that  in. a  college,  as  in  an  army,  while  most  de- 
pends on  the  commander-in-chief,  much  depends 
on  his  ability  to  inspire  subordinates  in  command 
with  his  own  aims.     If  there  be  dissensions  be- 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       75 

tween  the  President  and  his  Faculty,  sooner  or 
later  the  bad  results  appear.  If  there  be  too 
wide  a  gap  between  the  head  of  instruction  and 
those  who  follow,  if  less  apparent,  the  results 
are  still  unhappy.  It  may  be  said  with  perfect 
truth  that  the  relations  between  Dr.  Wayland 
and  his  Faculty  were  a  model  of  such  connec- 
tions. The  professors  were  put  on  a  footing  of 
personal  friendship.  They  were  confided  in  so 
far  as  they  proved  themselves  worthy  of  confi- 
dence. He  was  fond  of  recalling  the  dialogue 
between  George  the  Third  and  the  elder  Pitt : 
"  Sire,  give  me  your  confidence,  and  I  will  de- 
serve it."  "Mr.  Pitt,  deserve  my  confidence, 
and  you  shall  have  it."  Quoting  this  in  a  letter, 
he  adds,  "  The  king  had  the  best  of  it."  He 
cherished  close  social  relations  with  his  Faculty. 
His  house  was  always  open  to  them.  They  were 
welcome  guests  at  his  hospitable  table.  He 
sought  their  society.  What  his  society  did  for 
them  is  well  set  forth  in  the  following  testimony 
from  the  late  Professor  Gammell. 

"  He  was  exceedingly  fond  of  walking  in  the 
country,  always  seeking  companionship  on  such 
occasions.  The  evening  prayers  of  the  college, 
until  they  were  abolished  in  1850,  were  invaria- 
bly at  five  o'clock.  On  the  dismissal  of  the  stu- 
dents, he  would  very  commonly  summon  some  few 
to  join  him  in  his  walk  to  the  Seekonk  River.  .  .  . 


76  FEANCIS   WAYLAND. 

This  had  always  been  the  favorite  walk  of  aca- 
demics, both  young  and  old,  and  the  banks  of 
the  Seekonk  are  associated  with  the  college 
memories  of  every  generation  of  students.  .  .  . 

"  In  these  walks,  which  were  continued  through 
many  years,  he  would  often  do  all  the  talking 
himself,  especially  when  accomjDanied  only  by  his 
juniors,  sometimes  on  a  question  suggested  by 
his  companions,  sometimes  opening  the  results  of 
his  own  recent  reading,  or  perhaps  recalling,  in 
connection  with  the  public  incidents  of  the  town, 
anecdotes,  stories,  and  reminiscences  of  well- 
known  characters,  with  which  his  mind  was 
largely  stored." 

It  was  largely  through  this  close,  personal  as- 
sociation that  he  succeeded  in  imbuing  his  col- 
leagues with  his  own  fine  enthusiasm  for  teach- 
ing. In  later  years  there  was  less  of  this  per- 
sonal intercourse.  But  his  earlier  administra- 
tion was  marked  by  this  cultivation  of  generous 
friendship  with  the  professor  in  his  Faculty. 

In  addition  to  all  these  labors  of  administra- 
tion and  teaching  with  which  the  earlier  years 
of  his  presidency  were  crowded,  there  were 
others  not  less  engrossing.  He  at  once  began 
the  preparation  of  those  text -books  on  moral 
science  and  political  economy,  which  gave  him 
so  wide  a  reputation.  Besides  this,  Dr.  Way- 
land  became  a  public  man  almost  from  the  be- 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       77 

ginning  of  his  presidency.  If  any  important 
public  movement  were  to  be  undertaken  in  the 
city  of  Providence,  or  in  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  he  was  chosen  to  promote  it  by  an  ad- 
dress. His  reputation  as  a  preacher  caused  him 
to  be  sought  outside  these  limits,  in  neighboring 
cities,  to  preach  ordination  sermons,  to  give  an- 
niversary discourses,  to  lead  new  efforts  in  edu- 
cation, in  reform,  in  humane  enterprise.  These 
calls,  which  he  generally  responded  to,  added 
greatly  to  his  labors.  But  he  recognized  in 
them  one  form  of  usefulness,  and  it  was  not  in 
him  to  live  apart  from  such  movements,  what- 
ever may  have  been  his  habit  as  a  recluse  in 
ordinary  social  life. 

In  1827,  he  laid  before  the  General  Assembly 
of  Rhode  Island  a  plan  for  organizing  a  system 
of  free  schools  throughout  the  State,  which  in 
the  year  following  was  adopted  by  the  legisla- 
ture. He  was  made  chairman  of  a  committee  of 
citizens  of  Providence  in  1828,  "  to  which  was 
referred  the  consideration  of  the  first  school  sys- 
tem of  the  town  of  Providence.  The  report  of 
this  committee,  prepared  by  Dr.  Way  land,  was 
printed  in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Education  " 
for  July,  1828.  This  report  took  a  wide  range 
of  discussion,  embracing  such  topics  as  the  kind 
of  schools  demanded  when  supported  from  taxes, 
the  subject  of  graded  schools,  the  proper  methods 


78  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

of  common  school  instruction,  the  text -books 
which  should  be  used,  and  the  need  of  competent 
supervision.  The  plan  of  the  report  also  was  car- 
ried into  effect  in  the  city  schools.  On  August  19, 
1830,  when  the  committee  of  teachers  and  other 
friends  of  education  assembled  to  form  the  Amer- 
ican Institute  of  Instruction,  he  was  chosen  its 
first  president,  delivering  on  the  occasion  an  ad- 
dress, subsequently  published  in  the  Volume  of 
Discourses.  He  gave  also  an  address  at  the 
opening  of  the  Providence  Athenaeum,  in  which 
he  enthusiastically  commends  such  public  libra- 
ries as  the  true  means  for  popular  education,  and 
as  meeting  the  crisis  in  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion which  demands  a  popular  enlightenment. 
Such  an  institution  as  the  Boston  Public  Library 
was  then  unknown.  Its  humble  predecessors  ex- 
isted here  and  there.  He  took  the  highest 
ground  on  the  subject  in  saying,  "  It  becomes  us, 
then,  as  philanthropists  and  as  citizens,  to  fur- 
nish for  the  whole  community  the  means  of  cul- 
tivating in  the  most  perfect  manner  all  of  the 
talent  with  which  the  Creator  has  enriched  it." 
And  when  in  1838,  the  Hon.  J.  Forsyth,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  addressed  letters  to  gentlemen 
who  had  been  conspicuous  in  educational  posi- 
tions, asking  their  views  as  to  the  mode  of  apply- 
ing the  proceeds  of  the  [Smithsonian]  bequest, 
which  would  be  most  likely  to  meet  the  wishes 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       79 

of  the  testator  and  prove  advantageous  to  man- 
kind, Dr.  Wayland  drew  up  with  some  care  a 
plan  for  the  formation  of  a  National  University. 
Literary  honors  also  came  to  him.  He  gave  the 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  Oration  at  Brown  University, 
on  September  7,  1831,  choosing  for  his  subject 
"  The  Philosophy  of  Analogy,"  published  in  the 
Volume  of  Discourses,  1833.  In  September, 
1836,  he  gave  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Oration  at 
Harvard  College,  selecting  for  his  subject  "  The 
Practical  Uses  for  the  Principles  of  Faith."  It 
was  not,  however,  on  literary  occasions  that  he 
appeared  to  best  advantage.  The  subjects 
which  drew  out  his  best  powers,  and  in  their 
best  working,  were  those  directly  concerned  with 
human  interest  in  philanthrophy,  in  social  sci- 
ence or  in  religion. 

The  years  1827-1840  were  thus  years  of  con- 
tinuous and  varied,  often  anxious,  labor.  "  I 
am,"  he  wrote  to  his  sister,  "  a  perfect  dray- 
horse.  I  am  in  harness  from  morning  to  night, 
and  from  one  year  to  another.  I  am  never  turned 
out  for  recreation."  But  they  were  also  years 
of  sorrow.  In  the  spring  of  1834,  his  wife  died, 
after  a  short  but  distressing  sickness.  He  suf- 
fered, as  those  natures  of  deep  reserve  are  apt 
to  suffer,  for  the  most  part  in  silence.  His  let- 
ters contain  few  outcries  of  the  wounded  spirit, 
but  when    they   come,  —  they   come   from   the 


80  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

depths.  Few  realized  what  keenness  of  anguish 
that  spirit,  by  some  regarded  as  austere  and 
cold,  was  suffering.  He  found  two  sources  of 
consolation :  the  one  in  his  religious  faith,  the 
other  in  new  devotion  to  his  daily  toil.  The 
Christian  life,  in  him  so  dominant  an  element,  is 
of  peculiar  simplicity  and  tenderness  during  this 
influx  of  sorrow.  His  piety  was  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned cast.  It  had  about  it  the  flavor  of  godly 
sincerity.  No  man  had  less  of  anything  ap- 
proaching cant.  Yet  no  disciple  of  the  Master 
ever  knew  deeper  religious  emotion  at  times  than 
he.  As  one  reads  these  letters,  written  under 
the  shadow  of  this  grief,  it  is  evidently  a  piety 
of  the  school  of  Bunyan  and  Baxter  and  Howe 
which  is  pouring  out  its  heart  before  God. 

The  death  of  his  mother,  December  5,  1836, 
was  a  second  blow  following  hard  upon  his  ear- 
lier bereavement.  The  relations  between  the  son 
and  the  mother  had  always  been  of  peculiar 
closeness  and  sympathy.  He  had  been  her  com- 
panion in  childhood.  She  had  influenced  his 
mental  development  as  well  as  his  Christian  life. 
He  had  nourished  a  chivalrous  devotion  to  her 
as  well  as  a  profound  respect  for  her  attain- 
ments, and  above  all  for  her  piety.  To  her  he 
had  turned  in  the  hour  of  his  great  sorrow.  He 
poured  out  his  heart  to  her  in  his  letters  with 
the  freedom  and  trust  of  childhood.     These  be- 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.       81 

reavements  left  ineffaceable  impressions  on  his 
soul.  They  were  recognized  all  along  his  later 
life  in  the  peculiar  vividness  which  the  unseen 
world  had  for  him.  In  his  prayers,  in  some  of 
his  addresses  to  the  students  in  their  religious 
meetings,  long  after  these  sainted  ones  had  gone 
into  the  world  of  light,  it  was  noticeable  that  to 
him  its  blessedness,  its  companionships,  its  ser- 
vice, were  things  near  and  not  remote.  He  be- 
lieved in  the  "  communion  of  saints,"  and  his 
belief  was  intensified  by  the  memory  of  the  de- 
parted. To  no  article  of  the  earliest  creed  of 
the  church,  did  his  soul  respond  more  heartily 
than  to  that. 

A  second  marriage,  in  the  summer  of  1838,  to 
Mrs.  H.  S.  Sage,  brought  companionship  in  his 
home  and  a  lifelong  happiness  to  himself  and  to 
his  children.  Everything  now  in  his  career  was 
prosperous.  He  had  achieved  a  great  position  as 
an  educator.  His  presidency  of  the  college  had 
ranked  him  high  among  the  distinguished  group 
of  men  who  had  filled  that  position  in  our  New 
England  colleges,  —  a  group  of  christian  schol- 
ars, it  may  be  remarked,  than  whom,  no  more 
honored  class  had  been  produced  on  our  soil. 
Every  new  venture  in  publication  added  to  his 
reputation.  He  had  earned  a  rest  from  his  in- 
cessant toil.  In  1840,  the  Corporation  of  the 
university  voted  him  leave  of  absence  for  the 


82  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

purpose  of  travel  in  the  Old  World.  His  col- 
league and  life -long  friend,  Dr.  Caswell,  was 
asked  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  presidency 
in  his  absence.  Dr.  Wayland,  in  visiting  the 
Old  World,  was  more  influenced  by  a  desire  to 
know  something  of  its  renowned  seats  of  learn- 
ing and  of  general  education  abroad,  than  by  any 
desire  for  recreation,  or  by  the  ordinary  fancy 
of  travelers  for  sight-seeing.  In  fact,  he  had 
not  enough  of  either  of  these  elements  in  his 
composition  to  make  him  a  good  traveler,  or  to 
gain  from  life  abroad  the  benefits  it  may  con- 
fer on  a  wearied  scholar.  His  voyage  thither, 
in  October,  was  made  in  a  sailing  vessel,  partly 
with  the  hope  of  gaining  in  health  by  the  longer 
passage,  partly  because  steam  navigation  was 
then  not  beyond  the  stage  of  experiment.  The 
voyage  of  twenty-three  days  proved  rough  and 
uncomfortable.  It  induced  a  physical  depres- 
sion, which  clung  to  him  during  the  entire  visit. 
He  landed  in  Liverpool,  remained  in  England 
about  a  month,  then  crossed  the  channel  to  Paris. 
After  a  few  weeks'  stay  here,  he  gave  up  all 
thought  of  seeing  Switzerland,  Italy,  or  Ger- 
many, returned  to  England,  and  passed  the  time 
there  till  his  return  to  America  in  the  following 
April.  It  cannot  be  said  that  his  diary  fur- 
nishes much  of  striking  interest  in  the  way  of 
observation  or  comment.      The  tone  of  mental 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       83 

depression  runs  through  it ;  the  absence  of  any- 
penetrating  view  of  things  is  marked  ;  his  limit- 
ations appear  rather  than  his  peculiar  gifts.  He 
was  welcomed  of  course  with  great  heartiness  by 
dissenters  and  also  by  churchmen.  His  fame 
as  an  educator  and  preacher  had  preceded  him. 
He  could  not  fail  to  notice  the  tone  of  dissenting 
clergymen  toward  American  Christians.  Speak- 
ing of  the  Rev.  John  Angell  James  and  a  visit 
from  him,  his  diary  proceeds  :  "  AH  the  talk 
about  abolition,  etc. !  It  is  amusing  to  perceive 
how  this  question  seems  to  absorb  every  other 
among  the  dissenters,  and  to  what  extent  they 
carry  out  their  notions.  A  man  who  does  not 
adopt  their  opinions  is,  it  would  seem,  excom- 
municated from  church  and  society."  The  sul>- 
ject  was  evidently  thrust  upon  him  in  ungracious 
forms,  and  sometimes  in  very  offensive  ones,  as 
the  following  incident  will  show.  "Dr.  Way- 
land,  in  the  course  of  his  visits  to  the  English 
institutions  of  learning,  called  to  see  the  Baptist 

Academy  in ,  where  many  eminent  Baptist 

ministers  had  been  educated.      The  principal, 

who  was  also  the  preacher  at chapel,  after 

giving  Dr.  Wayland  all  facilities  for  examining 
the  institution,  said,  '  Sir,  I  am  sorry  that  I  can- 
not invite  you  to  occupy  my  pulpit  next  Sabbath. 
Personally,  I  have  no  objection ;  but  some  doc- 
trines in  your  treatise  on  the  "Limitations  of 


84  FRANCIS  WAYLAND, 

Human  Responsibility  "  have  rendered  you  un- 
popular in  England,  and  were  I  to  do  it,  I  should 
incur  reprehension.'  Dr.  Wayland  replied  in 
one  sentence  :  '  Sir,  when  I  ask  for  your  pulpit, 
it  will  be  time  enough  for  you  to  refuse  it.' "  ^ 

His  month  in  Paris  left  little  impression  on 
him.  He  saw  the  great  military  pageant  which 
bore  the  remains  of  Napoleon  I.  to  their  resting 
place,  in  the  Hotel  des  Invalides.  He  visited  the 
galleries  of  the  Louvre.  But  art,  save  in  the  form 
of  Gothic  architecture,  did  not  strongly  attract 
him.  He  could  not  rouse  in  himself  any  interest 
in  the  sights  of  Paris  nor  in  its  people.  It  is 
evident  that  he  retraced  his  steps  to  England 
with  undisguised  satisfaction.  Thenceforward, 
till  his  departure  for  home,  he  seems  to  have  had 
constant  intercourse  with  Englishmen  high  in 
church  or  state,  with  men  of  science,  with  noted 
literary  characters  ;  in  Scotland  with  her  great 
divines,  and  his  diary  is  much  more  full  of  in- 
terest. When  he  visits  the  English  courts  of 
justice  he  rises  into  enthusiasm.  He  had  an 
early  fondness  for  the  lives  of  the  great  English 
jurists.  He  quoted  frequently  from  them  to  his 
college  classes.  As  he  went  from  court  to  court, 
his  admiration  grew.  "  It  was  a  more  impressive 
sight,  I  must  say,"  he  wrote  in  his  diary,  ''  than 
the  scarlet  robe  of  the  peer,  the  ermine  of  the 
bishops,  the  crown  of  state,  the  robe  of  her  ma- 

1  Life  of  Wayland,  vol,  ii.  p.  13. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.      85 

jesty,  or  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  which 
I  witnessed  an  hour  or  two  afterwards."  His 
visits  to  Cambridge  and  Oxford  were  evidently- 
disappointing  to  him  in  many  respects.  The  fact 
is,  he  was  thrown  all  the  while  into  a  mood  of 
mental  antagonism  by  the  presence  of  so  much 
form,  and  by  the  exercise  of  what  seemed  to  him 
slavish  deference  to  the  aristocracy.  "  I  know 
not  how  it  is,"  he  writes  in  his  diary,  "  but  all  I 
see  renders  me  more  doggedly  a  democrat  and 
a  Puritan."  He  is  profoundly  moved  by  the 
architecture  of  such  a  cathedral  as  that  of  Lin- 
coln ;  but  Westminster  Abbey,  as  the  mausoleum 
of  so  much  English  greatness,  fails  to  impress 
him  deeply.  He  speaks  with  great  delight  of 
his  visit  to  John  Joseph  Gurney,  whose  views  on 
the  Sabbath  he  had  incorporated  into  his  moral 
science.  He  seems  to  have  had  free  access  to 
the  men  of  science,  attending  meetings  of  the 
Geological  Society,  of  the  Political  Economy 
Club,  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  of  the  Philo- 
sophical Society.  What  he  notes  in  these  asso- 
ciations is  the  fellowship  of  science  there  cultiva- 
ted and  the  love  of  truth  they  foster.  His  visit  to 
Oxford  drew  from  him  the  following  comment : 
"  Of  Oxford,  what  shall  I  say  ?  ^     Its  buildings 

^  "  I  heard  from  Mr.  Way  land  the  other  day,  who  gave  me 
an  extract  from  a  letter  from  Dr.  Wayland  [his  American 
cousin,  President  of  Brown  University,  who  had  been  lionized 


86  FRANCIS    WAYLAND. 

are  magnificent,  the  surroundings  beautiful  be- 
yond description.  Its  foundations  are  princely. 
.  .  .  But  when  one  reflects  on  the  immense 
wealth  of  its  establishment,  and  remembers  that 
this  was  designed  to  promote  the  prosecution  of 
science  and  the  advancement  of  learning,  and  not 
for  the  cultivation  of  luxurious  ease  ;  when  one 
remembers  that  it  was  for  the  education  of  the 
people  of  England,  and  not  a  part  of  them,  and 
that  it  is  now  used  for  the  good  of  a  part,  and  is 
the  avenue  to  all  social  and  professional  stand- 
ing, I  cannot  think  of  it  with  unmixed  respect. 
It  seems  to  me  a  monstrous  perversion,  I  do 
not  speak  of  the  present  incumbents,  I  know  not 
how  far  they  are  responsible,  but  of  the  sys- 
tem. Of  this  I  can  hardly  speak  in  terms  of 
too  great  disapprobation.  It  is  in  the  main 
the  same  at  Cambridge,  though  in  detail  it  is 
more  restrictive,  and  is  more  inclined  to  theol- 
ogy." Dr.  Way  land  was  drawn  to  Edinburgh 
by  his  desire  to  meet  Dr.  Chalmers.     During 

in  Oxford  by  J.  B.  M],  describing  us  a  most  agreeable,  intelli- 
gent, gentlemenly  set  of  men  ;  but  regretting  that  the  advan- 
tages of  the  place  were  so  confined  to  the  aristocracy.  He  is 
of  course  perfectly  mistaken  here,  and  judges  from  what  he 
sees  in  a  first  view.  He  meets  with  gentlemen  and  persons  of 
superior  manners,  and  forgets  that  it  is  the  place  which  in 
many  instances  has  made  them  such.  For  my  own  part,  I 
think  Oxford  is  the  most  leveling,  democratical  place  in  the 
kingdom."  —  Mozley^s  Letters,  p.  117. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       87 

his  life  as  tutor,  at  Union  College,  he  had  fallen 
in  with  the  sermons  of  the  great  Scotch  divine, 
and  wrote  to  his  friend  Wisner,  "  I  have  been 
lately  reading  Chalmers.  The  mind  of  that  man 
moves  like  a  torrent.  Vast,  irresistible,  over- 
whelming, it  sweeps  before  it  the  feeble  barriers 
of  infidelity,  so  that  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a 
vision,  not  a  rack  is  left  behind."  These  early 
impressions  were  confirmed  by  his  visit.  He 
heard  Chalmers  lecture,  and  "  was  strongly  im- 
pressed with  the  opinion  that  the  pulpit  was  his 
proper  place,  and  that  he  erred  in  leaving  it.  A 
visit  to  Dr.  Abercrombie,  one  to  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  and  to  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Edinburgh,  made  up  for  him  the  chief  points 
of  interest  in  his  visit  to  Scotland.  He  failed,  it 
would  seem,  to  meet  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby,  whom 
he  so  greatly  admired ;  and  though  he  visited 
John  Foster  at  his  home,  it  is  almost  provoking 
to  find  in  the  diary  no  notice  of  his  conversation 
beyond  the  fact  that  "  he  talks  with  all  the  vi- 
vacity of  youth."  In  fact,  the  diary  is  singularly 
wanting  in  reminiscences  of  his  conversations 
with  the  men  he  met.  It  is  refreshing  to  meet 
in  one  of  his  entries  the  following :  ''  Mr.  R. 
quoted  a  remark  of  Jeffrey :  '  He  did  not  object 
to  blue  stockings  provided  the  petticoats  covered 
them.' " 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY. 
1841-1855. 

After  his  return  from  foreign  travel,  Dr. 
Wayland  devoted  himself  for  some  years  to  the 
administration  of  the  college  on  the  old  lines 
of  organization.  He  had  wrought  some  benef- 
icent changes.  The  course  of  instruction  had 
been  enlarged  and  its  standard  elevated.  I  Un- 
der his  care,  Brown  University  had  gained  high 
/  and  deserved  rank  among  the  American  coUeges.J 
''  Its  graduates  bore  ample  and  hearty  testimony 
to  the,  breadth  and  thoroughness  of  their  train- 
ing. I  As  a  practical  educator,  he  occupied,  per- 
haps, the  foremost  place  in  New  England.]  II is 
expectations  of  growth  for  the  college  had,  how- 
ever, not  been  met.  A  steady  decline  in  the 
number  of  students  arrested  his  attention  and 
stimulated  inquiry  into  its  causes.  This  fact, 
together  with  the  desire  for  uninterrupted  time 
in  which  to  revise  his  works  already  published, 
and  to  prepare  others  for  the  press,  led  him  to 
resign  his  office  as  President  at  the  Commence- 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.       89 

ment  of  1849.  He  had  meditated  this  step 
for  several  years,  and  had  corresponded  with 
his  friend  Dr.  Nott  in  regard  to  it.  It  took 
the  whole  community  by  surprise.  The  pro- 
test against  it  from  the  academic  body,  from  the 
community  generally,  was  instant  and  earnest. 
The  wish  of  the  Corporation  that  he  should  with- 
draw his  resignation  was  so  far  acceded  to,  that 
he  consented  to  remain  in  office  during  the  cur- 
rent year.  The  result  of  the  step  he  had  taken 
in  resigning  was  a  reorganization  of  the  college. 
In  1842  — less  than  two  years  after  his  return 
from  Europe  —  he  published  his  "  Thoughts  on 
the  Present  Collegiate  System  in  the  United 
States."  This  little  volume  contains  the  germs 
of  all  subsequent  changes  introduced  by  him.  It 
is  of  importance  as  showing  how  fully  matured 
were  his  plans  in  the  new  departure,  or  system, 
which  in  1850  was  instituted  at  Brown  Univer- 
sity. This  volume  has  a  far  wider  significance 
as  indicating  that  Dr.  Wayland  was  a  pioneer  in 
all  the  modern  changes  which  have  so  deeply 
affected  our  collegiate  systems.  He  was.  a  "  re- 
former before  the  reformation."  Other,  men 
have  entered  into  his  labors.  Not  all  his  views 
have  been  accepted.  But  he  was  the  man  who, 
in  the  year  1842,  when  the  collegiate  system  as 
it  stood  was  passively  accepted,  raised  inquiries 
as   to    its*    completeness,   suggested    important 


90  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

changes,  and  laid  bare  some  of  its  glaring  de- 
fects. It  thus  forms  a  very  prominent  chapter 
in  the  history  of  higher  education  in  the  country. 

In  the  opening  discussion,  after  alluding  to 
the  interest  felt  in  liberal  education  by  Amer- 
ican citizens,  the  generous  provisions  made  in 
the  foundations  of  colleges  and  seminaries,  the 
inducement  offered  to  students  by  the  eleemosy- 
nary methods  adopted,  and  the  disproportionate 
response  in  the  number  of  students  to  all  this 
effort  for  the  promotion  of  liberal  education,  he 
sums  up  his  conclusions. 

"  First,  that  there  is  in  this  country  a  very 
general  willingness,  both  in  the  public  and  on 
the  part  of  individuals,  to  furnish  all  the  neces- 
sary means  for  the  improvement  of  collegiate 
education. 

"  Second,  that  the  present  system  of  collegiate 
education  does  not  meet  the  wants  of  the  pub- 
lic. The  evidence  of  this  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
change  after  change  has  been  suggested  in  the 
system,  without,  however,  any  decided  result,  and 
still  more  from  the  fact  that  although  this  kind 
of  education  is  afforded  at  a  lower  price  than 
any  other,  we  cannot  support  our  present  insti- 
tutions without  giving  a  large  portion  of  educa- 
tion away. 

"Third,  that  this  state  of  things  is  neither 
owing  to  the  poverty  of  our  poeple,  noV  to  their 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       91 

indifference  to  the  subject  of  education.  .  .  . 
A  liberal  education  is  certainly  a  valuable  con- 
sideration. Can  it  not  be  made  to  recommend 
itself,  so  that  he  who  wishes  to  obtain  it  shall 
also  be  willing  to  pay  for  it?  Cannot  this  gen- 
eral impression  in  favor  of  education  be  turned 
to  some  practical  account,  so  that  the  system 
may  be  able  to  take  care  of  itself  ?  Or  at  any 
rate,  if  after  all  that  has  been  done  we  remain 
without  having  effected  any  material  change, 
may  it  not  be  well  to  examine  the  whole  system 
and  see  whether  its  parts  may  not  admit  of 
some  better  adjustment  and  work  out  a  more 
perfect  result  ?  "  ^ 

Dr.  Wayland  then  passes  in  review  the  visi- 
torial  power  residing  in  the  governing  bodies  of 
our  colleges,  and  announces  the  following  prin- 
ciples as  those  which  should  determine  their 
selection. 

1.  The  members  should  be  appointed  solely 
with  reference  to  their  fitness  for  the  office. 

2.  They  should  be,  from  station  and  charac- 
ter, beyond  the  reach  of  personal  or  collateral 
motives. 

3.  They  should  be  few  in  number. 

4.  They  should  not  hold  office  by  life-tenure, 
but  for  a  certain  specific  time  of  service. 

^  Thoughts  on  the  Present  Collegiate  System  in  the  United 
States,  pp.  16,  17. 


92  FRANCIS   WA  YLAND. 

5.  They  should  not  form  a  close  corporation, 
but  should  be  chosen  by  some  foreign  body. 

In  regard  to  the  Faculty,  he  announces  views 
even  more  at  variance  with  received  notions. 

1.  The  appointment  of  professors  should  be 
secured  by  competition. 

2.  Both  as  to  tenure  and  emoluments,  the  of- 
fice of  professor  should  be  made  to  depend  upon 
the  labor  and  the  success  of  the  incumbent. 

3.  He  urges  consideration  of  some  efficient 
and  just  methods  of  removing  incompetent  or 
unfaithful  professors. 

All  this  was,  however,  preliminary  to  the  main 
point  of  his  discussion.  That  was  the  needed 
chanofes  in  the  course  of  instruction.  Here 
he  assumes  positions  which  show  how  he  antici- 
pated many  of  our  recent  advances  in  the  higher 
education.  First  of  all  he  urged  enlarged  re- 
quirements for  admission.  The  scope  of  such 
enlargement  was  to  extend  to  more  Latin,  Greek, 
mathematics,  history,  ancient  and  modern,  Eng- 
lish and  modern  languages.  It  would  result, 
among  other  things,  he  said,  in  securing  "  stu- 
dents of  a  more  uniform  and  more  advanced  age. 
It  would  also  react  favorably  on  the  type  of  in- 
struction given  in  such  institutions.  Such  an 
advance  could  be  met  in  different  ways.  In 
one  method,  the  number  of  studies  pursued  dur- 
ing the  college  course  might  be  limited  in  such 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.      93 

manner  that  whatever  is  taught  may  be  taught 
thoroughly." 

Two  things  always  excited  abhorrence  in  Dr. 
Wayland.  One  was  intolerance  in  religion,  the 
other  was  superficiality  in  education.  Accord- 
ingly he  proposed  a  second  method  to  extend  the 
term  of  college  residence,  making  it  five  or  six, 
instead  of  four  years.  This  was  a  favorite  idea 
with  him,  really  involving  what  has  been  brought 
about  in  the  so-called  graduate  courses  now  pur- 
sued in  all  our  more  important  institutions. 

A  third  plan  would  be  to  develop  the  college 
into  a  university.  He  would  enlarge  the  system 
of  degrees,  from  the  venerable  B.  A.  and  M.  A. 
desrrees  to  one  includino:  that  of  Bachelor  of  Sci- 
ence  or  Literature.  "  And  still  more,  in  order 
to  bring:  the  whole  course  of  studv  within  the 
scope  of  university  stimulants,"  instead  of  being 
conferred  in  course,  the  degree  of  M.  A.  "  might 
be  conferred  only  on  those  who  have  pursued 
successfully  the  whole  circle  of  study  marked 
out  for  the  candidates  for  both  degrees."  These 
thoughts  on  college  education  were  given  to  the 
public  in  1842.  That  they  may  have  been 
largely  the  fruit  of  his  intercourse  with  English 
educators  is  rendered  very  probable  by  the  re- 
peated allusions,  in  the  Report,  to  the  English 
universities  and  the  illustrations  borrowed  from 
their  history  and  methods.     That  other  minds 


94  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

may  have  been  cherishing  and  advancing  these 
or  similar  reforms  in  the  higher  education  is 
also  true.^  But  no  one  had  given  them  so  clear 
and  forcible  a  statement.  They  make  good  his 
title  to  the  fame  of  being  the  first  prominent 
educator  in  America  to  urge  reform  in  college 
methods.  They  are  certainly  the  germinal 
thoughts  which  ripened  into  the  changes  intro- 
duced by  him  into  Brown  University  eight  years 
later. 

For  the  next  seven  years  after  the  publication 
of  these  views,  he  was  occupied  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  office  and  in  studies  preparatory 
to  a  text-book  in  intellectual  philosophy.  The 
experience  of  these  years,  his  wider  observation 
of  tendencies  in  the  public  mind  regarding  col- 
legiate education,  confirmed  him  in  the  views  he 
had  set  forth  in  the  "  Thoughts  on  the  Present 
Collegiate  System."  The  decline  in  the  num- 
ber of  students  at  Brown  University,  which  had 
excited  his  apprehension  in  1842,  steadily  con- 
tinued. There  were  enrolled  on  the  catalogue 
of  1835-36,  195  ;  on  that  of  1848-49  only  150. 
Catalogues  of  the  intervening  years  show  this 
decrease  to  have  been  gradual.  It  is  evident 
that  Dr.  Wayland  thought  the  decline  in  the 
patronage  of  the  college  was  due  to  radically  de- 
fective methods  in  the  collegiate  system  of  the 
1  President  EHot's  Beport,  1883-1884. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       95 

country.  The  deficiencies  were  not  peculiar  to 
Brown  University.  It  shared  them  with  the 
other  colleges.  According  to  its  means,  it  had 
kept  abreast  of  progress  in  collegiate  education. 
He  was  thus  compelled  to  decide  whether  he 
would  continue  to  identify  himself  with  what  he 
considered  wrong  methods  in  collegiate  training, 
or  whether,  by  resignation  of  his  office,  he  would 
seek  relief  from  all  responsibility  in  the  matter, 
and  devote  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  his  books. 
The  prompt  refusal  of  the  Corporation  to  accept 
his  resignation,  and  the  earnest  remonstrances 
of  every  friend  of  the  college,  gave  him  the  op- 
portunity of  making  a  practical  test  of  his  views. 
It  enabled  him  also  to  test  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  public  would  respond  to  these  views. 
The  book  he  had  written,  "  Thoughts  on  the 
Present  Collegiate  System,"  had  not  attracted 
the  attention  it  deserved.  Educational  bodies 
are  proverbially  conservative.  New  methods  in 
education,  like  new  opinions  in  religion,  are  re- 
garded with  distrust. 

The  way  was  then  open  for  him  to  convey 
fully  to  the  governing  body  of  the  college  his 
matured  views  on  the  subject  of  college  educa- 
tion. He  would  not  remain  as  president  of  a 
declining  institution,  specially  when  he  felt  that 
the  system  needed  changes,  without  which  no 
great  advances  could  be  secured.     Accordingly, 


96  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

on  March  28,  1850,  he  made  a  "Report  to  the 
Corporation  of  Brown  University."  It  is  a 
pamphlet  of  seventy-six  pages,  and  discusses  in 
their  order  the  following  subjects :  the  System 
of  University  Education  in  Great  Britain,  the 
progress  and  present  state  of  University  Educa- 
tion in  this  country,  the  present  condition  of  this 
University,  the  measures  which  the  Committee 
[of  this  Corporation]  recommend  for  the  pur- 
pose of  enlarging  the  usefulness  of  the  Institu- 
tion, and  the  subject  of  Collegiate  Degrees. 

The  fundamental  principle  governing  the  whole 
report  was  that  our  colleges  were  not  properly 
answering  public  demand  in  the  matter  of  higher 
education.  Reserving  its  specific  recommenda- 
tions for  future  consideration,  there  are  some 
general  discussions  which  are  characteristic  of 
Dr.  Wayland,  and  which  invest  his  report  with 
interest.  As  a  document  on  education,  it  must 
always  have  a  marked  place  in  any  history  of 
the  development  of  our  collegiate  institutions. 
He  pays  a  high  tribute  to  the  work  accom- 
plished by  our  American  colleges  in  the  earlier 
periods  of  their  establishment.  "  We  think  it 
may  be  safely  affirmed  that  they  were  eminently 
successful.  We  do  not  know  of  any  British 
colony,  at  the  present  day,  which  has  anything 
to  compare  with  them.  At  these  colleges  were 
educated  some  of  the  profoundest  theologians 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       97 

that  any  age  has  produced.  They  nurtured  the 
men  who,  as  jurists  and  statesmen  and  diploma- 
tists in  the  intellectual  struggle  that  preceded 
the  Revolution,  shrunk  not  from  doing  battle 
with  the  ablest  men  of  the  mother  country,  and 
won  for  themselves  in  the  contest  the  splendid 
eulogy  of  Lord  Chatham,  the  noblest  of  them 
all ;  the  same  men  who,  when  the  Revolution 
was  accomplished,  framed  for  us,  their  successors, 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  perhaps 
the  most  important  document  that  the  eighteenth 
century  produced.  We  certainly,  then,  have  no 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  the  colleges  founded  in 
our  early  history."  He  notes  still  further  "  that 
these  colleges  were  almost  wholly  without  en- 
dowment. They  were  nearly  self-supporting  in- 
stitutions. The  course  of  study  was  limited, 
and  time  was  allowed  for  deliberate  investiga- 
tion of  each  science.  The  mind  of  the  student 
was  supposed  to  invigorate  itself  by  reflection 
and  reading,  and  hence,  with  far  less  means 
than  we  now  possess,  it  seems  to  have  attained  a 
more  manly  development."  ^ 

He  next  calls  attention  to  the  important  ad- 
vances made  by  modern  science,  and  their  bear- 
ing on  the  needs  of  a  new  country.  These  de- 
mands were  so  imperative  that  the  colleges  had 
been  compelled  to  devise  some  way  of  meeting 

^  Bepoit,  p.  11. 


98  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

them.  Accordingly,  every  new  branch  of  sci- 
ence had  been  introduced  into  the  college  curri- 
culum, and  this  addition,  as  only  the  four  years' 
course  had  been  retained,  necessarily  curtailed 
the  study  of  all  branches  formerly  taught.  The 
number  of  studies  was  thus  increased,  and  every 
one  was  less  perfectly  mastered.  The  effect  of 
this  is  argued,  at  considerable  length,^  as  dis- 
astrous both  to  the  pupils  and  to  the  teachers. 
Passing  from  this,  the  Report  then  notices  the 
"  fact  that,  within  the  last  thirty  years  or  more, 
it  had  been  found  that  the  colleges  of  New  Eng- 
land, could  not  support  themselves.  .  .  .  The 
demand  for  the  article  produced  in  them  was 
falling  off,  not  from  the  want  of  wealth,  or  in- 
telligence, or  enterprise,  in  the  community,  but 
really  because  a  smaller  number  of  the  commu- 
nity desired  it." 

At  first,  the  author  went  on  to  show,  the  at- 
tempt was  made  by  means  of  eleemosynary  aid. 
to  attract  larger  numbers  of  students.  Endow- 
ments for  this  purpose  were  solicited  and  ob- 
tained. "  An  immense  sum  of  money  has  within 
the  last  twenty  years  been  contributed  among  us 
for  the  purposes  of  collegiate  education."  ^  He 
then  grapples  with  the  question,  "  Have  the  ef- 
forts that  have  been  made  in  the  direction  .  .  . 
indicated  accomplished  the  object  intended?" 
1  Report,  pp.  14-20.  ^  j^i^^  pp.  24-28. 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.       99 

This  is  subdivided  into  three  questions,  each  of 
which  is  answered  negatively.  "  Has  the  present 
mode  of  supporting  the  existing  collegiate  system 
increased  the  number  of  educated  men  in  New 
England  ?  "  "  Has  the  standard  of  professional 
ability  been  raised  within  the  last  thirty  years  ?  " 
"  Have  our  efforts  in  this  direction  increased  the 
number  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel  ?  " 

After  this  general  discussion,  Dr.  Wayland 
considers  "the  manner  in  which  this  college 
[Brown  University]  has  been  affected  by 
changes  which  have  been  taking  place  in  colle- 
giate education  in  New  England."  The  falling 
off  in  the  number  of  students  is  shown  by  care- 
fully prepared  statistics,  and  this,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  during  his  administration  "  the 
demand  for  an  enlargement  of  the  studies  of  the 
collegiate  course  "  by  increased  equipments  had 
been  met.  Between  the  years  1832  and  1842 
the  number  of  under-graduates  had  been  larger 
than  at  any  period  within  the  last  twenty-two 
years.  But  from  1839  to  1849  there  had  been 
a  steady  decline.  In  the  year  1842,  beneficiary 
aid  had  been  to  a  great  extent  withdrawn.  In 
contrast  with  the  fortunes  of  other  colleges,  the 
endowment  of  Brown  University,  which  in  1827, 
the  time  of  Dr.  Wayland's  accession  to  the  pres- 
idency, was  $34,300,  had  received  no  increase. 
"  The  college  has  not  for  more  than  forty  years 


100  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

received  a  dollar,  either  from  public  or  private 
benevolence,  which  could  be  appropriated  to  the 
support  of  the  officers  of  instruction,  or,  with 
the  exception  of  a  temporary  subscription,  .  .  . 
a  dollar  which  could  be  applied  to  the  purpose 
of  reducing  the  price  of  tuition."  He  further 
shows  that  at  the  present  scale  of  expenditures, 
and  the  present  rate  of  income,  the  funds  must 
soon  be  exhausted,  and  the  institution  become 
bankrupt.^ 

The  remainder  of  the  Report  discusses  plans 
for  meeting  the  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  col- 
lege. First,  by  increase  of  endowments  on  the 
old  lines  of  organization,  namely,  "  the  four 
years'  course,  considering  the  college  as  a  mere 
preparatory  school  for  the  profession  of  Law, 
Medicine,  and  Divinity,"  thus  making  tuition 
cheaper,  and  offering  it  at  a  nominal  price.  This 
plan  he  dismisses  after  a  brief  consideration,  for 
reasons  assigned  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  discus- 
sion. The  other  plan,  that  unfolded  and  advo- 
cated,2  was  to  "  adapt  the  course  of  instruction 
to  the  wants  of  the  whole  community."  It  is 
best  expressed  in  his  own  words. 

"  If  it  be  the  fact  that  our  colleges  cannot  sus- 
tain themselves,  but  are  obliged  to  make  repeated 
calls  upon  the  benevolence  of  the  community, 
not  because  the  community  is  poor,  and  educa- 

1  R€p(yrt,  pp.  47,  48.  2  j&tW.  pp.  50-76. 


PRESIDENC Y  OF  BRO  W^^  \  ^I?JY^E^ITY.^  |.0J 

tion  inordinately  expensive,  but  b^oaiise,  jjiste^d 
of  attempting  to  furnisk  si3iei&tific>aiid  iitel'a/ty' 
instruction  to  every  class  of  our  people,  they 
have  furnished  it  only  to  a  single  class,  and  that 
by  far  the  least  numerous ;  if  they  are  furnishing 
an  education  for  which  there  is  no  remuneration, 
but,  even  at  the  present  low  prices,  a  decreasing 
demand  ;  if  they  are  not  by  intention,  but  practi- 
cally, excluding  the  vastly  larger  portion  of  the 
community  from  advantages  in  which  they  would 
willingly  participate,  and  are  thus  accomplish- 
ing but  a  fraction  of  the  good  which  is  mani- 
festly within  their  power,  then  it  would  seem 
that  relief  must  be  expected  from  a  radical 
change  of  the  system  of  collegiate  instruction. 
We  must  carefully  survey  the  wants  of  the  vari- 
ous classes  of  the  community  in  our  own  vicinity, 
and  adapt  our  courses  of  instruction,  not  for  the 
benefit  of  one  class,  but  for  the  benefit  of  all 
classes.  The  demand  for  general  education  in 
our  country  is  pressing  and  unusual.  The  want 
of  that  science,  which  alone  can  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  eminent  success  in  the  useful  arts,  is  ex- 
tensively felt.  The  proportion  of  our  young  men 
who  are  devoting  themselves  to  the  productive 
professions  is  great,  and  annually  increasing. 
They  all  need  such  an  education  as  our  colleges, 
with  some  modifications  in  their  present  system, 
could  very  easily  supply."  ^ 

^  Report,  pp.  50,  51. 


10%   '  ',    ;   FM^C^S   WAY  LAND. 

The  modificatiocs  Lo  proposed,  touching  as 
taoy  fxo  the  very  core  and  essence  of  his  later 
views  on  education,  will  be  presented  later  in 
this  volume,  in  connection  with  his  whole  work 
as  an  educator.  It  is  enough  here  to  say  that  the 
Report  attracted  wide  and  profound  attention. 
The  views  presented  were  directly  in  conflict 
with  the  generally  received  ideas  of  collegiate 
education.  It  was  not  easy  for  many  to  see  that 
his  opinions  on  eleemosynary  education  were  sus- 
tained either  by  experience  or  a  sound  theory  of 
education,  nor,  indeed,  that  they  were  the  nec- 
essary conditions  of  a  wise  university  reform. 
Hence  these  views  were  earnestly  controverted. 
The  leading  reviews,  directly  or  indirectly,  as- 
sailed the  arguments  and  the  conclusions  of  the 
Report.  The  main  point  of  attack  was  its  sup- 
posed hostility  to  the  classics,  its  exaltation  of 
special  over  general  training,  its  undue  praise  of 
science,  and  its  utilitarian  tone. 

The  newspapers  representing  the  popular  opin- 
ion on  the  subject  were  friendly  to  his  ideas,  and 
commended  the  schemes  he  proposed  for  remod- 
eling university  training.  In  his  own  city,  the 
"Providence  Journal,"  then  edited  by  Hon. 
Henry  B.  Anthony,  himself  an  accomplished 
scholar,  gave  a  cordial  indorsement  and  hearty 
support  to  his  projects.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  the  Corporation  of  the  university  as  a 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.    103 

body  was  convinced  of  the  soundness  of  his  edu- 
cational opinions.  Nor  were  the  members  of  his 
Faculty  inclined  to  adopt  all  his  views.  It  was 
understood,  indeed,  that  if  they  could  be  adopted 
in  the  main,  and  provision  for  carrying  them  into 
effect  could  be  secured,  that  Dr.  Wayland  would 
consent  to  remain  for  a  season  longer  at  the  head 
of  the  university.  To  carry  into  operation  the 
"  New  System,"  as  it  was  called,  there  was  de- 
manded a  large  increase  of  the  college  funds. 
New  professorships  were  necessary,  and  "  exten- 
sive modifications  of  the  college  buildings."  One 
hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  was 
the  estimated  amount  needed  for  the  successful 
working  out  of  the  plan.  Pending  its  adoption 
by  the  Corporation,  Dr.  Wayland  visited  the 
University  of  Virginia,  in  which  a  somewhat 
similar  system  had  been  in  actual  working  from 
its  foundation,  in  order  to  examine  its  results. 
This  visit  had  only  one  issue,  to  confirm  him  as 
to  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  changes  proposed. 

The  Corporation  met  on  May  7th,  and  adopted 
the  Report,  on  condition  that  the  sum  needed  to 
carry  its  recommendations  into  effect  should  be 
subscribed  on  or  before  its  meeting  in  Septem- 
ber. The  sum  was  raised,  and  the  college  went 
on  under  the  new  organization  from  that  date. 

The  immediate  results  of  its  adoption  were 
seen  in  an  increase  of  students.     Meantime,  in 


104  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

public  and  in  private,  Dr.  Wayland  gave  him- 
self to  the  promotion  of  his  plan  with  his  accus- 
tomed persistent  energy.  At  Union  College,  in 
1854,  he  delivered  an  address  upon  the  "  Edu- 
cation Demanded  by  the  People  of  the  United 
States."  Two  years  later,  he  spoke  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  the  Free  Academy,  Norwich,  Conn., 
and  gave  a  lecture  before  the  American  Insti- 
tute of  Instruction.  In  all  these  utterances,  he 
brought  before  the  public  the  views  in  his  "  Re- 
port to  the  Corporation  of  Brown  University." 
One  of  his  favorite  ideas  was  to  make  the  higher 
education  in  some  direct  way  serviceable  to  the 
workingmen  —  the  skilled  mechanics.  In  pursu- 
ance of  this  design,  in  1852  a  course  of  lectures 
was  given  in  the  college  upon  the  principles  and 
processes  employed  in  calico  printing,  by  Mr.  W. 
W.  Pearce,  then  Instructor  in  Analytical  Chem- 
istry. In  1853  Professor  George  I.  Chace,  hold- 
ing the  chair  of  "Chemistry  applied  to  the 
Arts,"  gave  a  course  of  lectures  upon  the 
"Chemistry  of  the  Precious  Metals"  to  the 
"jewelers  and  other  workers  in  those  metals." 
Both  these  courses  directly  appealed  to  Rhode 
Island  industries.  At  the  latter  course,  over  three 
hundred  artisans  were  in  attendance.  Professor 
J.  W.  Draper  had  said  in  an  address  (1853), 
"  I  heartily  join  in  the  sentiments  recently  ex- 
pressed by  an  eminent  clergyman,  and  trust  that 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN    UNIVERSITY.    105 

the  time  is  not  distant  when  we  shall  see  the 
New  York  mechanic  passing  up  the  steps  of  the 
university,  and  depositing  the  tools  he  has  been 
using  behind  the  door."  The  wish  had  become 
a  fact  in  Providence,  on  the  occasions  of  the  lec- 
tures of  Professor  Chace. 

Nor  were  the  severer  studies  neglected,  as  had 
been  the  fear  of  many  wise  and  accomplished 
educators.  The  classics  and  mathematics  held 
their  own.  The  degrees  requiring  study  of  the 
classics  showed  no  falling  off,  but  a  proportion- 
ate gain  in  the  number  of  candidates.  The  re- 
ports of  the  Executive  Board  — a  sub-committee 
of  the  Trustees  and  Fellows — to  the  Corporation 
for  successive  years,  all  speak  in  favor  of  the 
working  of  the  "  New  System." 

From  1850  to  1855,  Dr.  Wayland  was  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  supervising  and  developing 
this  new  departure  in  the  college  administration. 
Probably  they  were  the  most  anxious,  certainly 
the  most  laborious,  years  of  his  life.  Indeed, 
it  was  the  judgment  of  his  physician,  that  he 
never  overcame  the  effect  of  the  strain  to  which 
his  mental  energies  were  subjected.  On  him 
mainly  would  have  rested  all  the  blame  of  a  con- 
spicuous failure,  had  the  experiment  not  suc- 
ceeded. This  he  fully  realized,  and  hence  he 
gathered  up  all  his  resources  to  meet  the  great 
issue  of  his  life.     Aside  from  this  general  care 


106  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

over  the  interests  of  the  college  in  its  new  organ- 
ization, he  was  never  more  absorbed  in  his  work 
of  teaching  the  college  classes  than  during  these 
busy  years.  His  pupils  were  only  conscious  of 
a  strenuous  effort  on  his  part  to  make  the  chair 
of  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy  more  pow- 
erful in  its  hold  upon  the  body  of  students  un- 
der him.  He  was  also  occupied  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  text-book  on  Mental  Philosophy.  In 
1854,  this  was  published.  It  was  also  during 
this  period  that  he  wrote  the  memoir  of  Dr. 
Adoniram  Judson. 

If  to  these  labors,  be  added  those  connected 
with  public  addresses,  such  as  the  Annual  Ad- 
dress before  the  Rhode  Island  Society  for  the 
Encouragement  of  Domestic  Industry,  in  1851 ; 
his  funeral  sermon  on  Dr.  Sharp,  of  Boston,  in 
June,  1853,  the  manuscript  of  which  was  depos- 
ited beneath  the  corner-stone  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  in  Boston;  his  sermon  on  the  "Apostolic 
Ministry,"  one  of  his  most  carefully  prepared 
discourses,  delivered  before  the  New  York  Bap- 
tist Union  in  July,  1854 ;  the  introductory  lec- 
ture for  the  twenty-fifth  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Instruction  ;  the  address 
at  Union  College  on  the  occasion  of  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  Dr.  Nott's  presidency  of  that 
institution,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  his  capacity  for 
work  was  tested  to  its  utmost,  and  that  these 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.    107 

closing  years  of  his  presidency  were  among  the 
most  fruitful  of  his  entire  career.  He  had  never 
learned  how  to  take  vacations.  His  enjoyment 
was  in  change  of  work.  Only  such  rest  as  that 
may  bring  was  known  in  the  twenty-eight  years 
of  his  presidential  career.  He  l)ecarae  convinced 
that  he  "  could  not  have  discharged  [his]  duties 
for  another  year."  His  physician  also  enjoined 
on  him  the  duty  of  resting  from  active  work  in 
the  college.  He  decided  to  resign  his  office. 
Accordingly,  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Cor- 
poration held  August  21,  1855,  Dr.  Wayland 
read  his  letter  of  resignation. 

Brown  University,  August  20,  1855. 
To  the  Corporation  of  Brown  University  : 

Gentlemen,  —  After  more  than  twenty-eight 
years'  service,  the  conviction  is  forced  upon  me 
that  relaxation  and  change  of  labor  have  become 
to  me  a  matter  of  indispensable  necessity. 
These,  I  am  persuaded,  cannot  be  secured  while 
I  hold  the  office  with  which  you  have  so  long 
honored  me.  I  therefore  believe  it  to  be  my 
duty  to  resign  the  offices  of  President  of  Brown 
University  and  Professor  of  Moral  and  Intellec- 
tual Philosophy.  If  it  be  agreeable  to  you,  I 
desire  that  this  resignation  may  take  place  at 
the  close  of  the  present  collegiate  year. 

In  sundering  the  ties  which  have  so  long  bound 


108  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

US  officially  together,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  ex- 
press the  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  respect 
which  I  entertain  toward  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Corporation  of  Brown  University.  For  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  we  have  labored  to- 
gether in  promoting  the  cause  of  good  learning, 
and  specially  in  advancing  the  interests  of  this 
institution.  Those  who,  like  myself,  were  young 
men  when  I  entered  upon  office,  are,  with  me, 
beginning  to  feel  the  approaches  of  age.  Yet 
during  this  long  period,  no  spirit  of  dissension 
has  either  divided  our  councils  or  enfeebled  our 
exertions.  We  have  beheld  the  university,  year 
after  year,  advancing  in  reputation  and  useful- 
ness, and  diffusing  more  and  more  widely  the 
blessings  of  education.  Let  us  thank  God  for 
giving  us  this  opportunity  of  conferring  benefits 
on  mankind,  and  for  crowning  our  labors  with 
so  large  a  measure  of  success. 

Permit  me,  gentlemen,  to  tender  to  each  one 
of  you  the  assurances  of  my  grateful  regard, 
and  believe  me  to  be. 

With  the  highest  respect. 
Your  obedient  servant, 

Fkancis  Wayland. 

Regretting  the  necessity  laid  upon  them,  but 
recognizing  its  imperative  demand,  the  resigna- 
tion was  accepted.     When  the  college  bell  rang 


PRESIDE t^CY  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY.    109 

for  the  opening  exercises  of  the  next  collegiate 
year,  Dr.  Wayland,  happening  to  meet  one  of  his 
former  pupils  on  the  street,  paused  a  moment  to 
listen,  and  then  said,  "  No  one  can  conceive  the 
unspeakable  relief  and  freedom  which  I  feel  at 
this  moment,  to  hear  that  bell  ring,  and  to  know, 
for  the  first  time  in  twenty-nine  years,  that  it 
calls  me  to  no  duty." 

He  had  resigned  his  office  in  happy  opportu- 
nity. He  was  at  the  height  of  his  great  fame. 
His  name  was  known  and  honored  at  home  and 
abroad.  He  had  carried  through  successfully 
plans  of  reorganization  for  the  college,  which  had 
cost  him  years  of  thought  and  effort.  He  had 
seen  them  bearing  fruit  in  wider  spheres  than 
that  occupied  by  Brown  University.  He  was  not 
only  the  foremost  citizen  in  Rhode  Island,  he 
was  the  foremost  divine  in  the  ministry  of  the 
Baptist  Church.  And  amid  such  successes,  with 
the  ever  heightening  esteem  of  his  fellow-citizens 
and  fellow-educators,  his  intellectual  power  un- 
impaired, his  eye  still  bright  with  hope  for  human 
progress,  his  heart  animated  only  by  new  and 
larger  impulse  for  every  good  thing  in  learning 
or  religion,  he  gave  up  his  office.  Finis  coro- 
nat  opus.  A  serious  crisis  in  the  history  of  the 
college  to  which  he  had  given  the  best  years  of 
his  life  had  been  safely  passed.  Not  all  the 
schemes  he  then  proposed  have  been  successful. 


110  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

His  plans  have  been  modified.  But  the  essential 
features  of  his  *'  new  system,"  the  elective  prin- 
ciple in  studies,  have  been  adopted  in  every 
leading  college  or  university.  And  the  college 
in  which  he  instituted  the  changes  then  entered 
on  a  new  and  broader  career  of  usefulness. 
Brown  University,  though  among  the  smaller 
American  colleges,  has  maintained  always  a 
high  repute  for  high  and  thorough  scholarship. 
Her  debt  to  President  Wayland  is  not  to  be 
reckoned  by  ordinary  methods. 

Commencement  Day,  1855,  the  day  on  which 
he  laid  down  his  office  is  memorable  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  college,  and  of  the  city  in  which  it 
is  placed.  It  was  a  day  of  profound  feeling, 
shared  alike  by  the  civic  and  academic  com- 
munity. It  pervaded  all  classes.  There  could 
not  have  been  a  more  fitting  tribute  to  the  re- 
tiring president  than  this  deep,  silent  feeling  of 
regret  that  he  was  no  more  to  be  hailed  as 
President  of  Brown  University,  mingled,  as  it 
was,  with  the  sentiment  of  homage  to  his  good- 
ness and  his  greatness.  When  the  regular  Com- 
mencement exercises  in  the  First  Baptist  Church 
were  ended,  and  the  degrees  were  conferred, 
Dr.  Tobey,  a  citizen  of  Providence,  a  prominent 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  long  a 
member  of  the  Corporation,  and  the  chancellor 
of  the  university,  presented  the  resolutions  which 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.    Ill 

had  been  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Fellows  and 
Trustees  in  accepting  his  resignation.  As  he 
finished  reading  them,  he  added,  "  President 
Wayland,  I  herewith  present  thee  a  certified 
copy  of  the  resolutions,  now  read  in  thy  hearing. 
Wilt  thou  be  pleased  also  to  accept  from  me 
personally  the  assurance  of  my  high  respect 
for  thee  as  a  citizen  and  an  instructor  of  youth, 
with  the  desire  that  Heaven  may  smile  with 
prosperity  upon  the  evening  of  thy  days."  The 
quaint  simplicity  of  the  Friend's  language  on 
the  occasion  seemed  entirely  fitting,  and  more 
impressive  than  any  ornate  speech  could  have 
been.  Dr.  Wayland  replied  with  equal  simplic- 
ity:— 

"Mr.  Chancellor,  I  beg  you  to  accept,  for 
yourself  and  for  the  gentlemen  with  whom  you 
are  associated,  my  grateful  acknowledgments  for 
the  kindness  with  which  you  have  been  pleased 
to  estimate  my  imperfect  services.  If  the  Cor- 
poration of  Brown  University  believe  that  I  have 
faithfully  endeavored  to  do  my  duty,  I  desire  no 
higher  earthly  reward." 

Dr.  Joseph  P.  Thompson,  then  pastor  of  the 
Broadway  Tabernacle,  New  York  eity,  who  was 
present,  a  witness  of  the  scene,  wrote  thus  con- 
cerning it,  in  suggestive  and  impressive  words : 

"The  whole  scene,  the  'unbaptized  Quaker,' 
the  representative^of  the  extremest  spiritualism. 


112  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

in  his  pvim  habit,  and  with  his  precise  and  well- 
ordered  phrase,  contrasted  with  the  sturdy  Bap- 
tist, the  representative  of  the  intensest  form  of 
an  outward  ordinance,  yet  overflowing  with  spir- 
itual emotion  ;  these  two  sects,  whose  forerun- 
ners were  outlawed  from  the  old  Puritan  Colony 
of  Massachusetts,  now  meeting  in  that  shelter 
which  Roger  Williams  founded  for  '  persons  dis- 
tressed for  conscience,'  and  fraternizing  in  behalf 
of  a  sound  and  liberal  Christian  Education,  — 
this  was  a  scene  which  some  painter's  pencil  or 
some  poet's  pen  should  have  caught  upon  the 
instant  to  transmit  to  other  generations." 

At  the  Commencement  dinner  which  followed, 
Dr.  Way  land  gave  his  formal  farewell  address 
to  the  alumni,  whose  lengthening  ranks  he  had 
welcomed  there  from  year  to  year,  in  the  suc- 
cessive classes  graduated  under  him.  He  un- 
folded simply  the  guiding  principles  of  his  ad- 
ministration. They  were,  "  a  resolute  and 
honest  consecration  to  the  work  to  be  done,"  "  a 
dogged  instinct  to  do  his  duty,"  "never  to  act 
for  to-morrow,  or  next  month,  instead  of  to-day," 
"  adherence  to  general  principles,"  and  lastly 
reliance  on  the  Word  of  God.  "  Whatever  of 
knowledge  I  have  of  men  or  mind,  I  have  gained 
from  the  New  Testament  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  These  were  dilated  on  in  his  own  sim- 
ple but  most  forcible  way,  and  they  closed  the 


PRESIDENCY  OF  BROWN   UNIVERSITY.    113 

long  and  honorable  career  fitly,  because  they 
were  so  admirably  in  keeping  with  the  whole 
tenor  of  his  presidency. 

Had  Dr.  Wayland's  active  labors  ended  with 
his  resignation  of  the  presidency  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, it  could  have  been  justly  said  that  he 
had  filled  up  and  rounded  out  a  great  career. 
He  had  won  a  place  among  the  most  famous  of 
American  preachers,  and  his  sermons  would  have 
been  ranked  among  the  lasting  efforts  of  the 
American  pulpit,  perishable  as  sermon  literature 
is  wont  to  be.  He  had  raised  Brown  University 
to  a  worthy  rank  among  the  American  colleges. 
His  teachings  on  moral  science  had  moulded 
with  singular  power  a  generation  of  students,  and 
had  profoundly  affected  the  Christian  thought 
of  the  country.  He  had  proposed,  nay  had  put 
into  active  operation,  a  system  of  university 
education,  which  eventually  issued  in  the  recon- 
struction of  that  system  on  its  present  lines.  He 
in  all  this  had  never  forgotten  his  position  as  a 
Baptist,  and  by  his  devotion  to  denominational 
interests  had  become  the  most  influential  leader 
in  that  large  and  growing  body  of  Christians,  his 
name  standing  in  America  where  that  of  Robert 
Hall  or  John  Foster  stood  in  England. 

Had  he  then  retired  from  all  active  work  for 
years  of  learned  leisure  with  a 


114  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

"  fast  intent 
To  shake  all  cares  and  business  from  [his]  age, 
Conferring  them  on  younger  strengths," 

it  would  have  been  said  that  no  man  had  better 
earned  the  exemptions  from  toil.  Few  thought 
that  there  were  in  him  yet  possibilities  of  so 
great  service.  The  lines  of  work  were  to  be 
different,  but  the  outcome  of  his  last  years  marks 
one  of  the  most  impressionable  periods  of  his  life, 
and  one  of  the  most  instructive  in  the  annals  of 
biography. 


CHAPTER  V. 

LAST  YEARS.      1855-1865. 

Dr.  Wayland  had  always  been  fond  of  hor- 
ticulture. The  garden  belonging  to  the  presi- 
dent's house  on  College  Street  was  the  scene  of 
his  daily  toils  in  spring  and  summer.  He  did 
not  merely  dabble  in  gardening,  leaving  to  a  gar- 
dener the  hard  work.  He  planted  his  own  peas 
and  celery,  pruned  his  own  trees,  and  weeded 
the  beds  himself.  His  memoirs  ^  give  lengthened 
extracts  from  his  diary  in  these  later  years,  which 
show  how  large  a  part  of  his  life  his  garden  had 
become.  There  he  found  his  chief  recreation. 
There  too  in  pleasant  chats,  his  friends  and  at 
times  his  students,  enjoyed  some  of  his  choicest 
hours. 

When,  therefore,  after  his  removal  from  the 
president's  house,  and  his  occupancy  of  the 
dwelling  he  had  built  for  himself,  his  first  care 
was  the  preparation  of  its  garden.  In  March, 
1856,  he  removed  to  the  new  home.  With  his 
own  hand  he  planted  the  trees  which  now  shade 
1   VoL  ii.  pp.  301-303. 


116  FRANCIS    WAY  LAND. 

the  grounds.  More  than  ever,  horticulture  occu- 
pied his  time,  engaged  his  thoughts,  shaped  his 
correspondence.  Late  in  life  it  is  recorded  of 
him  that  "  he  could  be  on  his  feet  in  the  garden, 
working  from  breakfast  time  till  two  o'clock  " 
without  weariness,  when  he  could  not  take  a 
walk  of  any  length  without  complaining  of 
fatigue. 

The  year  following  his  resignation  of  the  col- 
lege presidency  was  mainly  a  year  of  mental 
rest.  Yet  he  could  not  give  up  intellectual  work 
wholly.  He  prepared  for  publication  that  series 
of  weekly  letters  which  had  appeared  over  the 
signature  of  Koger  Williams  in  the  "  Exam- 
iner," a  Baptist  weekly.  The  volume  was  enti- 
tled "  Notes  upon  the  Principles  and  Practices 
of  Baptist  Churches  "  ;  a  volume  less  elaborate 
in  structure  than  any  of  his  other  works,  and 
yet  noteworthy  as  an  exposition  of  the  principles 
and  practices  which  have  made  the  history  of 
the  Baptists  so  large  and  influential  a  chapter 
in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  world. 

The  quiet  tenor  of  his  life  was  broken  only  on 
two  occasions,  in  which  he  appeared  before  the 
public  to  make  addresses.  One  of  these  occasions 
was  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  country. 
Charles  Sumner  had  been  brutally  assaulted  in 
the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United  States  by 
Preston  S.  Brooks,  a  representative  from  South 


LAST   YEARS.  117 

Carolina.  The  indignation  of  New  England 
burned  hotly  on  reception  of  the  news  of  the  das- 
tardly outrage  ;  as  dastardly  in  its  plan  and  at- 
tack as  in  its  spirit.  Many  men  who  had  been 
no  admirers  of  Senator  Sumner's  methods,  or 
who  had  given  him  only  lukewarm  support,  were 
ronsed  by  the  cruel  and  wicked  deed  into  sym- 
pathy with  the  sufferer,  and  with  the  cause  he 
represented.  Public  meetings  were  held  through- 
out the  Northern  States  to  denounce  the  crime 
as  flagitious  in  all  its  aspects.  The  best  citizens 
of  Providence,  without  distinction  of  party,  met 
in  Howard  Hall  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  of 
June.  Alexander  Duncan  presided.  Dr.  Cas- 
well, of  the  university,  offered  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions which  were  supported  by  addresses  from 
Prof.  Gammell,  Hon.  Charles  S.  Bradley,  and 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Hedge.  The  closing  speech  was  by 
Dr.  Wayland.  As  he  stepped  on  the  platform 
an  outburst  of  applause  indicated  the  instinctive 
reverence  of  that  community  for  the  late  presi- 
dent in  his  retirement,  and  with  what  joy  and 
confidence  they  looked  to  his  counsel  in  all  such 
crises.  Every  speech  made  on  that  occasion  is  a 
high  example  of  oratorical  power.  The  opening 
of  Dr.  Wayland's  is  marked  by  its  calm  discus- 
sion of  principles.  But  there  was  in  his  soul  a 
native  hatred  of  all  tyranny,  and  this,  in  the  clos- 
ing passages,  occasioned  an  outburst  in  which 


118  FRAXCIS  WAYLAND. 

the  feeling  of  the  great  assembly  found  at  last 
full  voice,  as  he  depicted  in  the  bludgeon  of 
Senator  Sumner's  assailant  the  dethronement  of 
government  by.  law,  and  the  enthronement  of 
government  by  brute  force. 

"  We  have  met  this  evening  deliberately  to 
ask  each  other  whether  we  are  prepared  to  in- 
augurate such  a  change  in  the  form  of  our  gov- 
ernment, whether  we  choose  to  be  governed  by 
laws  which  express  the  intellectual  and  moral 
opinions  of  the  people  of  this  country,  or  by  laws 
enacted  without  the  opportunity  even  of  free  de- 
bate ;  by  laws  forced  upon  us  at  the  point  of  the 
bowie-knife,  or  under  the  muzzle  of  a  revolver  ; 
whether  in  fact  we  will  be  free  and  sovereign 
states,  or  the  mere  provinces  of  a  section  of  this 
country,  under  the  same  constitution  as  slave- 
holders have  ordained  for  their  chattels,  from 
whom  we  should  differ  only  in  complexion." 

"  The  question  before  us  is  simply  whether 
you,  here  and  now,  consent  to  this  change  in  our 
form  of  government,  and  accept  the  position 
which  it  assigns  to  you,  and  whether  you  agree 
to  transmit  to  your  children  this  inheritance. 
For  myself,  I  must  decline  the  arrangement.  I 
was  born  free,  and  I  cannot  be  made  a  slave.  1 
bow  before  the  universal  intelligence  and  con- 
science of  my  country,  and  w^hen  I  think  this 
defective,  I  claim   the   privilege   of  using   my 


LAST   YEARS.  119 

poor  endeavors  to  enlighten  it.  But  submit  my 
reason  to  the  bludgeon  of  a  bully  or  the  pistol 
of  an  assassin,  I  cannot ;  nor  can  I  tamely  be- 
hold a  step  taken  which  leads  directly  to  such 
a  consummation." 

Not  long  after  the  Sumner  address  he  at- 
tended the  Commencement  at  Yale  College.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  alumni  he  was  called  on  for 
a  speech.  Speeches  at  alumni  dinners  are  geur 
erally  among  the  most  evanescent  of  all  oratory. 
He  was  no  practiced  after-dinner  speaker.  He 
could  be  witty  on  occasion,  never  lacked  an  an- 
ecdote to  point  a  remark,  but  he  was  no  man 
to  set  the  table  in  a  roar.  But  the  off-hand  ad- 
dress he  made  at  that  meeting  of  Yale  alumni 
has  had  a  memorable  history,  as  shaping  the 
future  career  of  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
American  educators. 

The  organizer  and  the  future  President  of 
Cornell  University  happened  then  to  be  at  Yale, 
a  graduate  student.  How  he  came  to  hear  Dr. 
Wayland's  speech,  and  what  that  speech  did  for 
him,  is  best  told  in  President  White's  own  words: 
"  Lounging  about  the  edge  of  the  crowd  at  the 
alumni  meeting  at  Yale  in  1856,  I  was  attracted 
by  hearing  his  (Dr.  Wayland's)  name,  as  he 
was  called  on  to  speak.  He  rose,  and  his  ap- 
pearance made  an  impression  on  me,  such  that  1 
doubt  whether  those  who    saw  him   constantly 


120  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

now  carry  in  their  minds  a  more  vivid  portrait 
of  him  than  I  do  at  this  moment. 

"  He  spoke  of  the  possible  rise  or  decline  of 
this  nation,  of  the  duties  of  educated  men,  and 
said  that  he  believed  this  country  was  fast  ap- 
proaching a  '  switching-olf  place  '  towards  good 
or  towards  evil,  and  added  that  in  determining 
which  way  the  nation  should  be  '  switched  off,' 
the  West  held  the  balance  of  power,  and  that 
the  West  was  the  place  for  earnest  men  to  work 
in,  to  influence  the  nation.  That  was  all ;  but 
it  changed  my  whole  life.  I  gave  up  law,  litera- 
ture, and  politics,  and  thenceforward  my  strong- 
est desire  was  to  work  anywhere  and  anyhow  at 
the  West  on  education." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  James  N.  Granger,  pastor  of 
the  First  Baptist  Church,  died  January  5,  1857. 
Between  himself  and  Dr.  Wayland  a  close  inti- 
macy had  existed.  The  family  of  Dr.  Granger 
and  the  church  united  in  the  request  that  he 
would  preach  the  discourse  commemorative  of 
the  late  pastor.  No  sooner  had  this  been  done 
than  the  church  in  its  bereavement  turned  to 
Dr.  Wayland  for  his  help  in  their  hour  of  need. 
His  position  before  the  world  and  in  his  own 
community,  his  relations  to  that  church,  made 
this  appeal  most  fitting  as  it  was  most  natural. 
What  ensued  makes  up  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting portions  of  his  life. 


LAST  YEARS.  121 

Little  more  than  a  year  had  elapsed  since  he 
had  laid  aside  the  cares  and  labors  of  the  college 
presidency.  He  was  scarcely  rested  from  his 
long  and  arduous  services  in  that  post.  He  had 
other  and  very  different  plans  formed.  At  first 
the  church  committee  asked  him  simply  to  un- 
dertake the  supply  of  the  pulpit  from  Sunday 
to  Sunday,  while  they  should  look  about  for  a 
pastor  to  take  the  place  of  Dr.  Granger.  This 
invitation  was  promptly  but  courteously  declined 
for  the  reason  assigned  by  himself.  "  This  I 
was  unwilling  to  do,  for  I  thought  that  some 
time  would  elapse  before  a  suitable  candidate 
could  be  provided,  and  I  believed  that  the  church 
needed,  not  merely  preaching  on  the  Sabbath, 
but  great  and  faithful  labor  from  house  to  house." 
Accordingly  the  joint  committee  of  the  church 
and  of  the  society  for  the  supply  of  the  pulpit 
modified  the  invitation  by  enlarging  its  terms 
to  what  would  be  a  virtual  pastorate.  Thus 
changed  it  read,  "  Resolved^  that  Rev.  Francis 
Wayland,  D.  D.,  be  earnestly  requested  to  un- 
dertake the  performance  of  ministerial  and  pas- 
toral labors  for  the  time  being,  and  until  it  may 
be  thought  best  to  make  some  other  arrangement: 
and  that  he  be  requested  to  devote  his  time  and 
energies  to  these  ministrations  in  such  ways  as 
may  best  be  adapted  to  promote  the  highest  re- 
ligious interests  of  the  church  and  society."   The 


122  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

compensation  for  the  services  was  fixed  at  twen- 
ty-five dollars  per  week. 

This  invitation  Dr.  Wayland  accepted,  and 
began  his  labors  as  pastor  ^ro  tern,  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  in  the  month  of  February, 
1857.  It  is  evident  that  he  did  not  undertake 
this  new  field  of  labor  from  want  of  occupation. 
At  the  time  the  call  came  to  him,  he  had  on  hand 
important  and  long  -  deferred  literary  projects. 
In  fact,  it  seemed  the  natural  close  to  his  career, 
that  he  should  devote  himself  to  these  projects 
as  being  on  the  same  line  of  work  which  had 
occupied  him  during  his  college  presidency.  But 
there  were  powerful  motives  constraining  him  to 
relinquish  for  a  time  the  literary  labors  in  hand 
and  take  up  again  the  work  of  the  ministry,  — 
which  thirty  years  before  he  had  laid  down  to  be 
President  of  Brown  University.  In  his  sermon 
on  the  "Apostolic  Ministry,"  preached  at  the 
University  of  Eochester,  New  York,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  New  York  Baptist  Union  for  Minis- 
terial Education,  he  had  insisted  with  great  force 
on  certain  features  of  pastoral  and  pulpit  work, 
as  essential  to  the  true  growth  of  Christianity. 
Visitation  from  house  to  house,  preaching  the 
Gospel  in  personal  interviews,  and  this,  supple- 
mented by  a  plain,  direct  method  of  sermonizing, 
was  the  apostolic  ideal,  and  must  be  restored. 
Dr.  Wayland  felt  that  he  could  enforce  what  he 


LAST    YEARS.  123 

had  said  so  publicly,  if  he  attempted  himself  to 
do  what  he  had  urged  on  others.  He  held  mere 
words  always  cheap.  He  disdained  anything  like 
talking  for  effect.  He  said  once  to  one  of  his 
sons,  during  a  walk  in  the  winter  of  1857  : 
"  Example  is  the  most  powerful  force  in  morals ; 
this  law  God  has  established ;  and  in  his  deal- 
ings with  us  He  acts  in  accordance  with  it,  setting 
us  an  example  of  the  dispositions  which  he  bids 
us  cultivate."  He  would  therefore  add  the  force 
of  example  to  what  he  had  so  forcibly  uttered 
as  his  convictions  in  the  sermon  on  the  "  Apos- 
tolic Ministry."  In  the  Reminiscences,  he  has 
detailed  the  views  with  which  he  entered  upon 
the  work  of  the  pastorate. 

"  The  moment  I  assumed  the  duties  of  pastor, 
I  relinquished  every  other  engagement  and  occu- 
pation. I  laid  away  my  manuscripts,  put  aside 
all  labor  for  myself,  and  devoted  myself  to  the 
service  of  the  Gospel.  ...  I  had  published  my 
views  of  the  ministry,  of  the  kind  of  preaching 
needed,  of  the  other  labors  (besides  preaching) 
devolving  on  the  minister,  and  of  the  necessity 
of  making  every  other  pursuit  secondary  to  this, 
if  we  expected  the  blessing  of  God.  From  con- 
sistency, as  well  as  from  conscience,  I  felt  under 
obligation  to  follow  my  own  directions,  or  rather 
what  I  supposed  to  be  the  commands  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour.     If  I  can  speak  of  my  own 


124  FBAXCIS  WAY  LAND. 

motives,  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  commenced 
any  undertaking  from  a  more  simple  desire  to 
do  the  work  of  the  Master." 

The  First  Baptist  Church  of  Providence  is 
one  of  the  historic  churches  of  New  Eno:land. 
Its  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  was  cel- 
ebrated in  April,  1889.  Its  founder,  and  in  a 
sense  first  minister,  was  Roger  Williams.  Its 
early  record,  though  somewhat  marred  by  dis- 
sensions, is  full  of  interest  for  the  student  of  our 
ecclesiastical  history.  In  1770,  after  an  exist- 
ence of  one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  "it  had 
never  paid  its  ministers,  and  on  principle  was 
opposed  to  doing  it.  It  discarded  singing  and 
music  in  public  worship,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Quakers  and  the  early  Baptists  in  England.  It 
was  still  rigorous  for  the  laying  on  of  hands.  It 
refused  communion  to  those  who  did  not  prac- 
tice it.  It  held  those  liable  to  discipline  who 
should  join  in  prayer  without  the  bounds  of  the 
church."  But  after  that  date,  it  had  entered 
on  a  new  and  enlarged  career.  Its  pulpit  had 
been  filled  by  James  Manning,  first  President 
of  Brown  University,  Dr.  Jonathan  Maxy,  Dr. 
Stephen  Gano,  Dr.  Robert  Patterson,  Dr.  William 
Hague,  and  Dr.  James  N.  Granger.^  The  meet- 
ing-house, on  its  historic  site,  with  its  com- 
manding spire,  a  noble  specimen  of  that  earlier 

1  Vide  the  late  Dr.  S.  L.  Caldwell's  Historical  Discourse. 


LAST    YEARS.  125 

and  simpler  church  architecture  which  has  been 
supplanted  too  often  by  what  is  more  showy  and 
less  effective,  was  and  is  one  of  the  landmarks 
of  the  old  city.  Socially  as  well  as  historically, 
the  church  held  an  influential  position  in  the 
community.  There  had  worshiped  generations 
of  old  Rhode  Island  families  who  had  given 
character  to  the  city  and  the  State.  Its  vigor 
had  been  unimpaired,  and  it  offered  to  any  pas- 
tor a  position  of  great  dignity  and  usefulness. 

It  was,  however,  nothing  in  the  past  history 
or  present  commanding  position  of  the  church 
that  attracted  Dr.  Wayland  to  its  pastorate.  It 
was  simply  and  absolutely  the  opportunity  fur- 
nished for  an  earnest,  laborious  ministry,  after 
the  apostolic  model.  If  the  call  had  been  to  the 
humblest  church  in  the  city,  it  would  have  been 
accepted  with  equal  promptness  and  with  equal 
devotion. 

And  so,  in  his  sixty-first  year,  without  any 
thorough  recuperation  from  the  long,  unbroken 
toils  of  his  presidency,  he  entered  upon  the  work 
of  a  pastor,  which  he  had  laid  down  a  genera- 
tion before.  At  once  he  began  a  round  of  pas- 
toral visits.  By  these  he  did  not  mean  merely 
social  calls.  "  I  resolved,"  he  said,  "  that  I 
would  visit  no  house  without  introducing  the 
subject  of  religion  as  a  personal  matter,  and 
that  in  every  case,  unless  it  was  manifestly  best 


126  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

to  omit  it,  I  would  pray  with  the  family."  This 
pastoral  work  he  kept  up  for  nearly  a  year,  tiD 
every  family  had  been  visited.  Beginning  his 
rounds  in  the  forenoon,  dining,  perchance,  with 
one  of  the  families,  or  taking  a  hasty  meal  at 
some  restaurant,  plodding  on  from  house  to 
house,  following  up  the  persons  he  sought  into 
shops  and  counting-rooms,  never  riding,  giving 
as  his  reason  for  not  doing  so,  "I  could  not 
ride  to  see  poor  persons  who  never  ride,"  he 
managed  to  secure  "  personal  conversation  on 
religion  with  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  ad- 
ults of  the  parish."  One  of  his  friends  testifies 
that  "  a  number  of  times  on  Wednesday  evening 
I  went  into  the  vestry  before  the  congregation 
had  gathered  [for  the  weekly  religious  service], 
and  at  first  thought  no  one  was  there.  But  pres- 
ently I  would  see  Dr.  Wayland  lying  down  on 
one  of  the  seats ;  he  was  worn  out  with  the  in- 
cessant visiting  and  talking  of  the  day,  and  was 
resting  for  a  few  minutes." 

This  Wednesday  evening  lecture  brought  out 
some  of  Dr.  Wayland's  choicest  gifts.  He 
magnified  its  importance  and  threw  his  soul  into 
it.  The  informal,  face-to-face  meeting  with  his 
people  elicited  his  deepest  feelings,  and  stimu- 
lated some  of  his  most  effective  addresses.  His 
reading  of  the  Scriptures,  always  impressive,  at 
this  service,  took  on  its  most  impressive  tone. 


LAST   YEARS.  127 

His  appeals  to  the  conscience  were  then  most 
direct.  His  unfolding  of  the  Christian  life  was 
then  suffused  with  the  glow  of  his  own  experi- 
ence. The  pastoral  visiting  of  the  day  just  ended 
often  gave  him  the  clue  to  his  evening  address, 
and  kindled  the  fire  which  burned  throughout 
his  appeals.  He  mourned  that  he  could  not  do 
in  the  pulpit  on  the  Sabbath  what  he  was  so 
easily  accomplishing  in  these  Wednesday  even- 
ing conferences.  Probably  he  underrated  the 
efficacy  of  the  more  studied  pulpit  discourses. 
They  were  needed  in  their  place  as  much  as 
were  the  emotional  and  searching  off-hand  talks 
or  exhortations  of  the  conference  room.  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  he  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing the  weekly  service  of  the  church  all  that 
such  a  service  should  be  in  maintaining  the  spir- 
itual life  of  the  people. 

His  sermons  were  prepared  from  week  to 
week,  and  in  great  part  were  written.  "Fre- 
quently," he  writes  to  a  brother  minister,  "  I 
write  two  and  always  one  sermon  for  the  Sab- 
bath. I  am,  however,  more  and  more  satisfied 
that  this  is  a  useless  labor,  and  I  hope  soon  to 
begin  to  preach  once  a  day  without  notes.  I 
see  that  I  am  in  danger  of  being  confined  to 
them,  and  the  writing  consumes  valuable  time." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  owing  to 
no  want  of  sermons  already  prepared,  that  Dr. 


128  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

Wayland  undertook  the  preparation  of  fresh 
ones.  He  had  by  him  in  manuscript  the  dis- 
courses of  years,  preached  in  the  college  chapel 
and  in  the  churches  round  about.  But  he  had 
come  to  feel  that  the  preaching  needed  for  the 
place  and  the  hour  should  be  simpler,  more 
direct,  and  more  vital,  with  the  single  aim  of 
making  salvation  by  Christ  the  ruling  topic,  and 
of  bringing  this  theme  into  the  closest  relations 
with  the  consciences  and  hearts  of  his  hearers, 
then  and  there.  It  was  said  of  him  by  a  brother 
clergyman,  and  the  statement  is  not  strained, 
that  Dr.  Wayland  never  wrote  an  obscure  sen- 
tence in  his  life.  His  published  sermons  show 
a  careful  style,  and  many  of  them  are  ornate 
with  a  grave  but  sonorous  eloquence.  All  this 
he  deliberately  eschewed  in  this  later  preaching 
from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  in  the  pulpit  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church.  It  was  literally  a  "  com- 
mending the  truth  to  every  man's  conscience  in 
the  sight  of  God."  . 

In  such  labors  he  was  abundant,  when  the 
wide  religious  interest  of  1858,  following  the 
commercial  reverses  of  1857,  swept  through  the 
American  churches.  Into  this  movement  Dr. 
Wayland  threw  himself,  heart  and  soul.  Plac- 
ing, as  he  did,  the  greatest  importance  on  the 
pastoral  care  as  an  element  of  any  successful 
ministry,  he  began  to  revisit  the  people  of  his 


LAST   YEARS.  129 

charge.  But  in  addition  to  this  he  sought  way- 
side oj)portunities  of  personal  address.  Meeting 
young  men  of  his  acquaintance  in  his  walks,  he 
would  address  them  tenderly,  solemnly,  briefly, 
and  then  pass  on.  "  I  was  walking  with  him 
down  Thomas  Street,"  said  a  member  of  his  fam- 
ily, "  when  he  said  to  me,  '  There  is  a  man  who 
has  been  avoiding  me  for  weeks.  I  want  to 
speak  to  him ; '  and  he  left  me  standing  till  he 
had  done  so." 

It  was,  however,  in  the  so-called  business 
men's  prayer-meeting,  held  daily,  that  his  most 
effective  efforts  were  often  put  forth.  These 
meetings  gathered  into  themselves  the  lawyers, 
judges,  merchants,  tradesmen,  mechanics,  among 
whom  his  life  had  been  spent.  He  knew  them 
and  their  histories.  His  off-hand  addresses  were 
strikingly  adapted  to  the  end  in  view.  He  laid 
bare  all  the  fallacious  excuses  to  which  such  men 
are  apt  to  flee. 

"  There  was  one  peculiarity  in  his  preaching," 
is  the  testimony  of  Rev.  Dr.  Caswell,  "  in  which 
he  seemed  to  me  to  surpass  all  men  to  whom  I 
have  ever  listened.  It  was  in  exposing  the  de- 
vices of  the  heart,  and  in  hunting  a  guilty  sinner 
from  every  subterfuge,  from  every  refuge  of  lies 
until  he  stood  before  himself  in  all  the  deformity 
of  sin.  He  had  deeply  studied  the  laws  and 
modes  of  action  of  the  human  conscience,  and 


130  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

few,  if  any,  of  the  world's  great  teachers  have 
ever  handled  it  more  skillfully."  "No  man," 
said  another,  "  ever  ploughed  through  my  con- 
science as  Dr.  Wayland  did."  In  all  this  we 
cannot  help  tracing  the  influence  of  Kev.  Dr. 
Nettleton,  remarkable  himself  for  this  power, 
and  under  whose  ministry  years  before,  in  a  sim- 
ilar religious  awakening.  Dr.  Wayland,  then  a 
tutor  in  Union  College,  had  come.  He  had  also 
a  sense  of  the  eternal  realities  which  gave  his 
speech  the  force  of  one  who  "  testified  that  he 
had  seen."  All  the  prodigious  earnestness  of 
which  his  soul  was  capable  came  out  in  those 
pungent,  plain-dealing,  but  tender  addresses  to 
his  neiglibors  and  friends.^  "  I  was  going  out 
of  the  hall  [where  these  meetings  were  held] 
one  day,  when  I  chanced  to  look  around  and  saw 
an  aged  man,  bowed  down,  and  Dr.  Wayland 
leaning  over  and  speaking  to  him.  I  went 
back,  and  found  that  it  was  the  venerable  Judge 
P.,  overwhelmed  with  anxiety  and  sorrow.  He 
was  expressing  his  fear  that  for  one  so  old,  who 
had  lived  so  many  scores  of  years  without  God, 
there  was  no  help.  Dr.  Wayland  was  most  ten- 
derly pointing  him  to  the  boundless  mercy  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus.'* 

Into  the  prayer-meeting  and  the  Sunday  ser- 
vices of  the  church  over  which  he  was  holding 

^  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  216. 


LAST   YEARS.  131 

pastoral  care,  Dr.  Wayland  brought  an  added 
fervor  of  spirit.  He  lifted  his  audience  to  his 
own  high  level  of  devotion.  The  solemnity 
was  at  times  unutterable.  Silence,  which  veiled 
thoughts  and  feelings  too  deep  for  tears  or 
speech,  was  most  expressive  of  what  Divine 
power  filled  the  place.  His  prayers,  his  reading 
of  the  Scriptures,  his  talks  and  his  sermons,  all 
revealed  the  fact  that  over  his  own  soul  the 
power  of  an  endless  life  had  come  as  it  seldom 
comes  to  any  preacher.  If  ever  a  man  rose  to 
the  height  of  a  great  religious  occasion,  that 
man  was  Dr.  Wayland  in  this  religious  move- 
ment. 

But  he  did  it  at  cost  of  strength  which  could 
never  be  repaired.  In  a  letter  to  one  of  his  sons 
he  says,  "  I  am  now  in  my  sixty-third  year.  Not 
many  more  birthdays  await  me.  I  have  on  a 
few  occasions  used  my  brain  pretty  hard,  and  I 
sometimes  fear  that  it  will  never  be  wholly  re- 
stored to  its  former  power.  But  this  is  all  as 
God  wills.  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it."  His 
physician,  watchful  of  the  effects  of  such  bur- 
dens on  his  strength,  of  such  strain  upon  mind 
and  body,  noticed  increasing  feebleness,  and 
urged  him  to  give  up  so  exhausting  cares.  He 
had  taken  no  respite  save  a  short  visit  to  Sara- 
toga, interrupted  after  a  few  days  by  the  death 
of  his  friend,  Mr.  Moses  B.  Ives.     The  church, 


132  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

meantime,  had  urged  him  to  accept  the  pastorate 
as  a  permanency.  He  considered  the  matter 
carefully,  but  was  conscious  that  he  could  not 
wisely  continue  in  this  relation.  After  a  year 
and  three  months  of  such  toil,  he  laid  down  his 
temporary  pastorate,  and  was  succeeded  by  tho 
Eev.  Dr.  Caldwell  in  June,  1858. 

His  biographers  have  noted  two  incidental  fea- 
tures of  this  brief  ministry,  which  have  endur- 
ing value.  First,  a  practical  organization  of 
the  church  for  care  of  the  district  in  which  it  is 
placed.  It  is  in  fact  realizing  the  true  parish 
idea.  As  drawn  out  by  Dr.  Wayland,  and  as 
actually  practiced  by  the  church  with  gratifying 
results,  the  plan  was  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  church  and  congregation  shall  be  dis- 
tributed, according  to  their  places  of  residence, 
into  twelve  districts. 

"  A  committee  of  two  brethren  and  two  sisters 
shall  be  appointed  annually  to  the  watch  care  of 
each  district. 

"  It  is  expected  of  such  committees :  — 

"  1.  That  they  will  make  it  their  great  ob- 
ject to  call  the  unconverted  to  repentance ;  to 
encourage  their  brethren  and  sisters  to  lead  a 
holy  and  consistent  Christian  life ;  to  caution 
them  against  conformity  to  the  world  ;  to  urge 
them  to  labor  and  self-sacrifice  for  the  cause  of 
Christ,  and  to  suggest  to  them  appropriate  fields 


LAST    YEARS.  133 

of  labor,  so  that  every  one  of  them  may  be  a 
living  member  of  the  body  of  Christ. 

"  2.  That  they  will  be  in  frequent  communi- 
cation with  the  pastor  and  keep  him  informed 
of  all  matters,  in  the  several  districts,  which  re- 
quire his  special  attention,  particularly  where 
there  is  sickness,  affliction,  or  religious  thought- 
fulness  and  inquiry ;  also  that  they  will  seek  out 
strangers  in  the  congTegation,  introducing  them 
to  the  pastor,  and  promoting  their  acquaintance 
with  others. 

*'  3.  That  the  committee,  or  one  of  them,  will 
visit  every  person  committed  to  their  charge,  at 
least  once  in  six  months. 

"4.  That  the  several  committees  will  meet 
on  the  evening  of  Tuesday  after  Communion  in 
October,  January,  April,  and  July,  to  confer 
upon  the  state  of  the  church,  and  to  devise 
means  for  its  increase  in  piety  and  usefulness, 
the  pastor  presiding. 

"5.  That  they  shall  make  report  of  their 
doings  as  often  as  the  church  shall  direct,  with 
such  suggestions  as  they  think  proper  for  pro- 
moting the  piety  of  the  church  and  the  advance- 
ment of  Christ's  kingdom. 

"  It  is  recommended  that  the  members  of  the 
church  in  each  district,  if  practicable,  meet  once 
a  month,  or  from  time  to  time,  at  some  private 
house,  for  conference  and  prayer." 


134  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

The  other  change  which  he  advocated  was  in 
the  service  of  song.  He  had  great  faith  and 
great  delight  in  a  true  congregational  singing  as 
a  source  of  spiritual  quickening.  He  had  no  faith 
and  no  delight  in  a  vicarious  choir  performance 
of  sacred  music.  The  artistic  efforts  of  fine  so- 
prano solos  were  all  lost  upon  him.  He  de- 
lighted in  the  noble  h3anns  of  Watts,  was  very- 
impatient  when  they  were  divorced  from  the  old, 
familiar  tunes.  He  made  a  resolute  effort  to 
supersede  mere  choir  singing  by  the  singing  of 
the  congregation.  He  induced  Dr.  Lowell  Mason 
to  come  to  Providence  and  address  the  people 
upon  the  subject.  He  was  successful  in  the  ef- 
fort.    Congregational  singing  was  introduced. 

His  temporary  pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  was  an  episode  in  his  great  career. 
Episode  though  it  be,  yet  no  measure  of  the 
man  can  be  taken  which  does  not  take  it  into 
deep  consideration.  That  after  thirty  years  of 
academic  labor  abundant  in  educational  schemes, 
writing  text-books,  managing  students,  he  could 
take  up  and  carry  on  such  a  pastorate  is  a  mar- 
vel. This  brief  ministry  of  Dr.  Way  land  in  the 
First  Baptist  Church  has  about  it  something 
apostolic.  The  true  succession  is  there.  Rightly 
it  has  been  said  that  its  triumph  was  owing  in 
great  part  to  the  power  of  the  spiritual  man, 
owing  also  to  the  intense  and  absolute  concen- 


LAST   YEARS.  135 

tration  of  effort  upon  his  work.  "  The  moment, 
I  assumed  the  duties  of  pastor,"  he  says  in  the 
Reminiscences,  "  I  relinquished  every  other  en- 
gagement and  occupation.  I  laid  away  my 
manuscripts,  put  aside  all  labor  for  myself,  and 
devoted  myself  to  the  service  of  the  Gospel.'* 
He  relinquished  also  his  customary  reading  even 
of  reviews.  He  was  a  man  of  one  book,  and 
that  the  Bible,  during  the  entire  period.  He 
was  then  and  till  his  death  living  on  a  high 
table  -  land  of  spiritual  experience.  All  his 
words  were  invested  with  power  drawn  from  his 
intense  spiritual  life.  After  his  death,  two 
members  of  the  bar  were  discussing  his  labors 
during  this  period,  when  one  remarked,  "  I  do 
not  know  how  it  is ;  I  never  felt  so  towards  any 
one  else,  but  I  always  had  a  strange  sensation  of 
awe,  whenever  I  met  him  or  saw  him.  I  do  not 
know  what  it  was  owing  to."  "Do  you  not 
know,"  replied  the  other,  "  why  you  felt  the  in- 
fluence of  his  almost  superhuman  goodness?" 
The  same  testimony  was  given  by  another  emi- 
nent lawyer  in  almost  identical  language.  "  It 
was  the  most  wonderful  exhibition  of  goodness 
that  I  ever  saw  or  conceived  of." 

He  had  succeeded  in  enforcing  the  lesson  of 
his  sermon  on  the  "  Apostolic  Ministry  "  hj  an 
example  which  taught  even  more  powerfully 
than  words.     He  however  laid  down  one  form 


136  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

of  labor  only  to  take  up  another.  When  he 
undertook  the  pastorate,  as  has  been  said,  he 
gave  up  every  kind  of  literary  work.  He  had 
left  his  plough  standing  in  the  furrow.  He  at 
once  put  his  hand  to  it,  and  prepared  for  pub- 
lication his  "  Sermons  to  the  Churches,"  which 
appeared  in  August,  1858.  That  was  followed 
in  December  by  the  volume  originally  entitled 
"  University  Sermons,"  but  now  called  "  Salva- 
tion by  Christ."  Two  sermons  on  the  "  Recent 
Revolutions  in  France  "  were  omitted,  and  two 
new  ones  written  during  his  recent  pastorate, 
were  inserted  in  their  stead. 

In  1858  an  invitation  was  given  him  to  be- 
come president  of  a  university  just  established, 
and  which  gave  promise  of  large  usefulness. 
His  reply  shows  that  he  was  fully  conscious  of 
having  overtasked  his  powers,  while  such  an 
offer  to  him  at  over  threescore  shows  the  com- 
manding position  he  had  gained  among  Ameri- 
can educators. 

The  main  labors  of  the  years  1859  and  1860 
were  put  forth  in  revision  of  his  text-book  on 
moral  science.  Abandoning  his  first  plan  of 
reconstructing  it  and  making  a  new  volume,  he 
rewrote  those  chapters  or  portions  which,  in  his 
view,  needed  different  statements  or  enlarge- 
ment.^ 

^  Notably  his  views  on  war. 


LAST   YEARS.  137 

On  his  sixty-fifth  birthday  he  wrote  to  his 
son:  — 

"  I  am  this  day  sixty-four  years  old.  What 
remains  to  me,  and  how  much,  is  known  only  to 
Him  who  will  do  all  things  aright.  I  should 
like  to  bear  my  testimony  fully  on  human 
rights,^  and  to  labor  at  some  other  things  that 
may  be  useful ;  but  if  I  do  not,  some  one  else 
will  be  commissioned,  who  will  do  it  better.  I 
am  in  the  midst  of  that  subject  now,  and  I  ask 
your  prayers  that  I  may  be  enabled  to  treat  it 
properly.  I  proceed  slowly.  It  is  difficult  to 
state  articulately  truth  that  is  so  simple,  and  to 
state  it  so  as  to  impress  man. 

"  However,  I  make  some  progress.  I  hope  I 
have  been  directed  to  do  it  so  as  to  aid  Christ's 
little  ones.  The  more  I  think  of  it,  the  more 
unextinguishable  is  my  abhorrence  of  oppres- 
sion, especially  of  our  own  slavery." 

Dr.  Wayland  undertook  to  maintain  the 
weekly  service  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
on  Wednesday  evenings,  during  the  summer 
months  of  the  year  1859,  instead  of  having  it 
suspended,  as  had  been  the  custom.  He  gave 
at  the  time  a  series  of  expository  disourses  on 
the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.  It  was  a  costly 
series  for  him;  he  should  rather  have  been  tak- 

1  Alluding  to  the  chapter  in  his  Moral  Science  which  dis- 
cusses that  subject. 


138  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

ing  a  needed  rest  and  vacation,  but,  as  he  said, 
"  I  have  never  learned  to  amuse  myself."  The 
audiences  which  gathered  to  hear  him,  in  spite 
of  summer  heat,  were  large.  But  he  labored 
in  the  unfolding  of  his  subject. 

There  was  noticeable  a  loss  of  his  former 
power  in  such  services.  It  was  only  the  indica- 
tion of  more  serious  trouble  to  come.  The  work 
of  revising  the  chapters  on  slavery  in  the  Moral 
Science,  the  responsibility  of  which  the  growing 
public  excitement  on  the  question  made  more 
stringent,  came  directly  upon  this  exhaustion, 
and  early  in  the  spring  of  1860,  the  symptoms 
of  paralysis  appeared.  He  himself  noticed  that 
his  "  thinking  powers  were  in  some  way  disor- 
dered," that  his  "  speech  was  affected.  Some 
words  I  could  not  pronounce  without  effort,  and 
my  organs  would  not  obey  me  without  a  special 
act  of  the  will,  and  then  only  imperfectly."  .  .  . 

"  It  was  necessary  for  me  to  answer  a  note.  I 
found  it  impossible  to  write  as  usual,  or  in  fact 
more  than  barely  legibly.  I  could  not  keep  on 
the  line,  nor  command  my  hand  so  as  to  form  the 
letters  distinctly.  My  first  attempt  could  not,  I 
think,  be  understood.  I  tried  a  second  time,  and 
by  writing  slowly,  and  with  constant  attention 
of  the  will  to  every  letter,  succeeded  a  little  bet- 
ter, but  only  a  little.  I  at  once  perceived  that 
something  was  the  matter  with  my  brain.    I  took 


LAST    YEARS.  139 

medical  advice.  ...  I  soon  saw  Dr.  Jackson  of 
Boston.  He  told  me,  contrary  to  all  my  expec- 
tation, that  it  would  take  eighteen  months  or  two 
years  before  I  could  be  restored.  During  this 
interval  of  enforced  leisure,  Dr.  Wayland  wrote 
out  the  Reminiscences,  This,  together  with  the 
"  Introduction  "  to  the  "  Life  of  Trust,"  George 
Miiller's  autobiography,  was  his  only  mental 
occupation. 

From  the  beginning,  Dr.  Wayland  had  been 
a  close  observer  of  the  antislavery  agitation.  As 
it  waxed  hotter  and  hotter,  his  feeling  was  roused. 
His  views  of  the  duties  of  an  American  citizen 
would  not  suffer  him  to  bury  himself  in  his  liter- 
ary projects,  and  hold  himself  aloof  from  active 
participation  in  the  coming  struggle,  whose  issue 
in  internecine  strife  he  foresaw.  In  the  spring 
of  1854,  at  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Provi- 
dence called  to  enter  solemn  protest  against  the 
passing  of  the  so-called  Nebraska  bill,  he  made 
a  speech  published  in  all  the  leading  northern 
newspapers.  The  points  he  made  against  the 
bill  were  all  taken  on  the  broad  ground  that  it 
was  flagitious  to  establish  slavery  throughout  all 
the  territories  concerned.  "  I  protest,"  he  said, 
"  against  this  bill  in  the  first  place,  because  it 
proposes  to  violate  the  great  elementary  law,  on 
which  not  only  government,  but  society  itself  is 
founded,  —  the  principle  that  every  man  has  a 


140  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

right  to  himseK.  Second,  as  an  American  citi- 
zen, I  protest  against  this  bill.  Third,  as  a  citi- 
zen of  a  free  state,  I  protest  against  this  bill. 
Fourth,  I  protest  against  it,  as  a  Christian." 

This  address  fixed  Dr.  Wayland's  position  as 
one  of  the  great  leaders  in  the  trying  times  that 
were  to  follow.  The  *'  National  Era,"  the  organ 
of  the  prominent  antislavery  men,  "  declared  that 
no  such  specimen  of  compact  logic  had  been  ad- 
dressed to  the  American  people  since  the  death 
of  Daniel  Webster."  Up  to  this  time,  he  had 
been  in  correspondence  with  many  of  the  better 
and  sounder  thinking  men  of  the  south.  It  is 
true,  as  an  eminent  Baptist  minister  in  one  of 
the  border  States  said,  that  "  the  southern  people 
would  hear  Dr.  Wayland,  after  they  had  ceased 
to  hear  any  other  northern  man."  But  the  tem- 
per toward  him  changed  after  this  address.  He 
was  denounced,  and  his  text-books  excluded  from 
use  in  southern  literary  institutions. 

His  private  correspondence  during  this  period 
discloses  even  more  fully  the  attitude  of  his 
mind.  From  the  moment  of  its  passage  he  had 
an  intense  and  outspoken  abhorrence  for  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  When  under  that  law  in 
the  summer  of  1854,  Anthony  Burns,  a  fugitive 
slave,  was  on  trial  in  Boston,  the  danger  was 
that  the  opposition  to  it  would  break  over  all 
bounds.    The  court-house,  virtually  in  chains,  was 


LAST    YEARS.  141 

guarded  like  a  prison,  and  slavery,  like  a  gigan- 
tic Shylock  defying  the  outraged  sentiment  of 
the  community  with  its  appeals  to  the  cruel 
"  bond,"  proclaiming  as  its  justification,  "  I  stand 
here  for  law,"  all  this  had  excited  the  minds  of 
the  New  England  people  to  a  perilous  degree. 
It  was,  however,  characteristic  of  Dr.  Way  land 
to  write  to  his  son  as  follows :  — 

"  Keep  down  your  passions ;  pray  for  the 
country  ;  try  to  look  as  patiently  as  possible?  upon 
wrong-doers.  In  the  meantime,  proclaim  the 
principles  of  right,  their  obligation  and  suprem- 
acy, and  nerve  men  to  be  willing  to  suffer  loss 
in  consequence  of  them.  What  is  wanted  is  to 
extend  and  deepen  the  feeling  of  resistance  to 
oppression,  and  of  determination  at  *all  hazards 
to  be  free  from  participation  in  it.  When  this 
is  universal,  united,  and  moral,  nothing  can  with- 
stand it,  and  the  agents  to  carry  it  on  will  soon 
appear.  Do  not  allow  yourself  in  strong  excite- 
ment, but  rather  lift  up  the  case  with  both  hands, 
and  all  your  heart,  to  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth ; 
plead  his  promises  and  his  perfections,  and  wait 
for  the  indications  of  his  providence.  This  seems 
present  duty.  Write,  publish,  enjoin  the  peo- 
ple ;  direct  the  present  feeling  in  proper  chan- 
nels.    This  is  all  I  see  at  present." 

In  the  same  vein  he  writes  to  a  lawyer,  his 
former  pupil.     He  had  disapproved  of  the  ex- 


142  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

tremes  of  denunciation  to  which  the  earlier  abo- 
litionists had  been  addicted ;  he  was  now  solici- 
tous to  have  the  just  and  growing  opposition  to 
slavery  make  no  mistakes.  He  had  done  much 
to  create  an  intelligent  and  solid  antislavery  sen- 
timent. He  was  now  concerned  to  guide  its 
manifestations  in  proper  channels. 

"  The  times  look  grave.  I  hope  that  the  spirit 
of  the  North  is  at  last  aroused.  It  seems  to  me 
that  the  thing  to  be  done  is  not  to  be  committed 
to  any  rash  or  sudden  measure,  but  to  deepen, 
extend,  and  unite  the  antislavery  feeling.  I 
never  before  have  been  deeply  moved  by  any 
political  question.  May  God  direct  it  all  to  the 
advancement  of  truth  and  righteousness  !  Do 
not  be  anxious  to  take  extreme,  but  rather  solid 
ground,  and  thus  carry  all  sober  men  with  you. 
..."  I  want  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  sense 
of  right  extended  in  every  direction  ;  not  by  vio- 
lence that  cannot  be  defended,  but  by  showing 
the  right,  and  keeping  people  out  of  the  wrong. 
I  never  knew  anything  so  intensely  and  cumula^ 
tively  abominable.  It  is  a  matter  of  deep  and 
anxious  thought.  You  should  study  it  carefully, 
and  make  up  your  mind  on  all  points,  so  that  if 
a  time  comes  for  action,  you  may  be  prepared 
with  good  reasons  for  yourself  and  others." 

Meantime  the  Republican  party  had  been 
formed  with  John  C.  Fremont  as  its  candidate 


LAST   YEARS.  143 

for  the  presidency.  With  this  party  he  at  once 
identified  himself,  casting  his  vote  for  its  candi- 
dates. He  watched  the  progress  of  the  cam- 
paign with  profound  solicitude.  He  hailed,  in- 
deed, the  appearance  of  this  party  as  a  hopeful 
sign.  In  June,  1856,  he  had  written  to  Hon. 
C.  G.  Loring,  Boston :  "  Since  I  saw  you,  I 
have  thought  of  but  one  subject,  —  the  condition 
of  the  Northern  States.  We  have  neglected  the 
sighing  of  the  captive,  and  said  that  slavery  was, 
after  all,  a  small  matter  ;  and  God  is  giving  us 
a  taste  of  it,  that  we  may  see  how  we  like  it  our- 
selves. The  iron  already  enters  my  soul.  I  feel 
that  we  are  governed,  not  by  law  and  the  ex- 
pression of  the  universal  conscience  of  the  na- 
tion, but  by  bowie-knives,  bludgeons,  and  the 
lash.  I  hope  that  the  conscience  and  love  of 
liberty  in  this  people  will  be  roused. 

"  You  mentioned  a  thought  to  me,  to  which  I 
attach  great  importance  ;  it  is  the  formation  of 
some  plan  of  concert  among  the  Free  States.  We 
must  have  concert,  and  act  upon  a  plan.  It 
may  require  some  time  and  labor  and  sacrifice, 
but  it  is  worth  them  all. 

"  But  amidst  all  this  confusion  God  reigns, 
and  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  Him,  and  the 
remainder  of  wrath  He  will  restrain.  I  try  to 
uphold  my  hopes  for  my  country  by  falling  back 
on  the  character  of  God.  There  only  is  our 
trust." 


144  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

The  result  of  the  election  in  no  way  dispirited 
him.  He  was  wont  to  seek  for  general  princi- 
ples to  guide  him  in  his  conduct,  and  as  supports 
when  human  effort  had  done  its  best.  His  sup- 
port in  this  case  was  found  in  the  belief  that 
God's  providence  is  nowhere  more  conspicu- 
ously manifest  than  in  its  watch  over  the  inter- 
ests of  truth  and  righteousness.  This  article  in 
his  creed  was  inwrought  into  his  life.  All  his 
correspondence  shows  how  much  he  made  of  the 
Psalmist's  view  of  God,  as  a  Refuge,  a  Shield 
and  Buckler,  a  Strong  Tower,  and  Eock  of  De- 
fence. 

To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bartol  he  wrote,  after  the 
election  had  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Buchanan, 
November  17,  1856  :  — 

"  Well,  the  election  is  over,  and  I  am  satisfied. 
We  have  at  last  a  North.  It  is  an  expression 
of  decidedly  changed  public  opinion.  We  have 
now  a  basis  of  operations,  and  have  only  to  be 
united,  to  keep  alive  the  moral  sentiment  of  the 
people,  to  diffuse  light,  and  to  gain  the  next  tier 
of  States,  and  the  result  is  sure.  If  Fremont 
had  gone  in  with  new  and  undisciplined  men, 
and  a  Senate  and  a  House  against  him,  we  should 
have  been  broken  up.  Now  I  think  the  chances 
of  freedom  are  good.     God  prosper  the  right !  " 

Through  all  the  four  years  of  Buchanan's  ad- 
ministration, he  watched  the  course  of  public  af- 


LAST   YEARS.  145 

fairs  closely.  Deeply  absorbed  in  his  temporary 
pastorate  as  he  was,  suffering  from  the  prostra- 
tion which  came  upon  him  in  consequence  of  his 
labors,  and  then  resting  from  them  in  enforced 
leisure,  there  does  not  appear  in  his  correspon- 
dence much  allusion  to  the  times.  He  spoke 
of  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's  Ferry  as 
madness,  but  did  justice  to  the  "  bravery,  cool- 
ness, and  evident  sincerity  of  the  old  captain." 
He  thought  the  result  would  be  to  "  raise  the 
tone  of  antislavery  feeling  several  degrees  higher 
throughout  the  North." 

The  nomination  and  election  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln in  1860  received  his  hearty  support.  He 
was  then  quietly  resting  from  his  overtasked 
condition  of  mind  and  body.  But  that  he  was 
all  alive  to  the  issues  involved  in  that  election, 
gathering  solemnity  with  every  hour,  is  indi- 
cated in  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  his 
son.  "  Since  the  evening  of  the  6th  [Novem- 
ber, 1860],  I  have  breathed  more  freely.  It  is 
plain  that  the  only  constitutional  party  is  the 
Republican.  Nothing  would  be  acceptable  to 
the  South  but  our  entire  submission,  that  we 
should  become  slaves.  This  we  are  not  yet 
ready  for.  It  is  a  question,  not  of  black,  but 
of  white  slavery." 

Dr.  Wayland  had  publicly  and  frequently  an- 
imadverted upon  war  as  in  many  cases  not  only 


146  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND, 

an  evil  of  incalculable  extent,  but  as  needless. 
He  had  warmly  advocated  arbitration  as  the 
true  mode  of  settling  international  disputes. 
With  such  views  he  had  held  for  some  years 
the  presidency  of  the  American  Peace  Society. 
He,  however,  had  no  hesitation  as  to  the  duty 
of  the  North  in  the  awful  crisis  of  1861.  The 
following  letter  to  Hon.  Lafayette  Foster,  of 
Connecticut,  is  eminently  characteristic  of  him, 
especially  his  words,  "  TJie  best  place  to  meet 
a  difficulty  is  just  where  God  puts  it.  If  we 
dodge  it,  it  will  come  in  a  worse  ylace^ 

"  It  is  one  of  the  most  wicked  things,  I  fear, 
that  God  ever  looked  upon.  It  is  a  legitimate 
effect  of  slavery.  The  prostitution  of  conscience 
in  one  thing  leads  to  its  universal  prostitution. 
.  .  .  Well,  what  is  to  be  done?  I  dare  not 
pray  for  any  one  thing,  only  that  a  just  and  holy 
God  would  glorify  himself,  and  deliver  the  op- 
pressed, and  show  himself  in  favor  of  justice,  by 
giving  strength  to  right  and  to  those  who  pre- 
serve it.  In  looking  for  this,  I  have  not  for- 
gotten you.  .  .  . 

"  Can  it  be  doubted  on  which  side  God  will 
declare  himself?  Can  we  doubt  that,  if  we 
look  to  him  in  faith,  he  will  bring  forth  judg- 
ment unto  victory?  If  you  want  to  see  how 
God  looks  upon  oppression,  read  the  ninety-fifth 
Psalm.    I  hope  all  our  friends  will  continue  firm, 


LAST    YEARS.      -  147 

and  sacrifice  no  principle  for  present  advantage. 
The  best  place  to  meet  a  difficulty  is  just  where 
God  puts  it.  If  we  dodge  it,  it  will  come  in 
a  worse  place.  May  God  grant  you  wisdom ! 
Look  to  Him,  and  lean  upon  Him  in  confidence 
and  earnest  faith." 

From  the  time  the  terrible  struggle  opened  in 
the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter  to  the  close  t>f  the 
war,  he  was  thoroughly  alive,  active,  and  obser- 
vant of  every  phase.  The  deeper  the  country 
was  plunged  into  its  throes  for  existence,  the 
more  undaunted  was  his  faith  in  Divine  Provi- 
dence. He  foresaw  with  remarkable  clearness 
what  the  contest  would  ultimately  involve.  The 
Emancipation  Proclamation  took  him  by  no  sur- 
prise, as  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  to 
his  son,  dated  January  18, 1861,  will  show  :  — 

"  God  is  about  to  bring  slavery  forever  to  an 
end.  He  has  taken  it  into  his  own  hands,  and 
allowed  the  South  to  have  its  own  way.  They 
proclaim  slavery  as  a  most  religious  thing,  for 
which  they  are  willing  to  die.  God  is  taking 
this  way  to  free  us  from  complicity,  and  to  let 
them  try  it  by  themselves.  Greater  madness 
never  existed.  But  '  the  Lord  is  known  by  the 
judgment  which  he  executeth ;  the  wicked  is 
snared  in  the  work  of  his  own  hands.'  " 

Holding  such  views  of  the  Divine  Providen- 
tial control  over  events,  he  accepted  the  related 


148  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

doctrine  of  intercessory  prayer.  He  believed 
simply  and  with  his  whole  soul  in  God,  not 
less  as  the  Hearer  and  the  Answerer  of  prayer, 
than  as  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  Universe. 
This  was  one  of  the  characteristic  things  about 
his  whole  Christian  life.  Philosophical  or  sci- 
entific objections  to  this  view  of  prayer,  never 
seem  to  have  in  any  way  troubled  him.  He 
was  familiar  with  them,  of  course,  but  they 
never  for  a  moment  paralyzed  the  force  or 
abated  one  jot  the  intensity  of  his  belief  in 
the  power  of  prayer  to  secure  directly  blessings 
for  the  nation  as  for  the  individual.  In  all 
this  crisis  of  the  national  life  this  belief  comes 
to  the  front.  He  had  the  greatest  admiration 
for  the  character  of  Cromwell.  He  believed 
in  his  sincerity  as  well  as  his  ability.  He  had 
the  Cromwellian  spirit  in  the  matter  of  prayer 
as  fully  as  in  that  of  the  wielding  of  the  sword. 
Hence  he  was  constantly  engaged  in  efforts  to 
promote  the  prayerful  spirit  in  the  souls  of 
Christian  men.  At  the  request  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  American  Tract  Society, 
at  Boston,  a  tract  on  "  Prayer  for  the  Country  " 
was  prepared  by  him.  To  a  member  of  Con- 
gress he  wrote :  — 

"  Why  could  not  you,  and  one  or  two  whom 
you  might  know,  meet  in  private  for  prayer  ?  I 
do  not  think  much  of  prayer  meetings  for  such 


LAST   YEARS.  149 

objects  in  a  place  where  it  may  be  [thought] 
for  bunkum,  though  I  would  encourage  calling 
upon  God  in  every  reasonable  and  devout  form ; 
but  for  myself  I  enjoy  such  things  most  with  a 
congenial  few  in  a  private  chamber,  the  doors 
being  closed." 

Again  to  a  chaplain  in  the  army  :  — 
"  I  have  great  faith  in  the  prayer  of  the  poor 
down-trodden  Africans  held  in  bondage,  deprived 
of  the  privilege  of  reading  the  word  of  salva- 
tion, who  cry  day  and  night  unto  Him." 
To  his  sister  in  the  same  strain  :  — 
"  As  to  public  matters,  I  have  very  little  to 
say,  except  it  be  to  bless  God  for  his  repeated 
appearances  in  our  behalf.  I  hardly  dare  read 
newspapers  ;  in  fact  for  several  years  I  have  not 
seen  the  time  when  I  read  them  so  little  as  now. 
I  am  always  apprehensive  of  defeat  and  slaugh- 
ter ;  or  if  victory  is  given  to  us,  the  death  of  men 
who  have  made  themselves  enemies,  but  to  whom 
I  have  no  feeling  of  enmity,  is  sad  beyond  any- 
thing that  I  can  express.  I  cannot  get  these 
things  out  of  my  mind,  and  they  prevent  me  from 
sleeping.  I  say,  Lofd^  how  long  f  Shall  the 
sword  devour  forever  ?  Say  to  the  Destroying 
Angel,  '  It  is  enough ;  put  up  thy  sword  into  its 
sheath.'  I  beseech  you,  pray  without  ceasing 
for  this  beloved  country,  for  friends  and  ene- 
mies ;  that  God  would  give  these  latter  better 
minds." 


150  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

In  the  charities  which  sprang  from  the  neces- 
sities of  the  war,  its  Sanitary  and  Christian  Com- 
missions, and  in  the  efforts  to  educate  the  negroes 
as  they  came  under  the  cognizance  of  the  army, 
the  philanthropic  spirit  of  Dr.  Wayland  found 
ample  means  of  expressing  itself.    There  was  no- 
thing he  could  do  as  a  citizen,  to  sustain  the  cause 
of  the  North,  which  he  left  undone.      He  would 
march  with  a  regiment  of  troops  to  their  embar- 
kation, and  send  them  forth  with  the  benediction 
of  his  prayer ;  he  would  use  his  pen  in  writing 
tracts  ;  he  would  give  his  counsel  to  chaplains  and 
members  of  Congress  ;  he  would  preside  at  meet- 
ings of  the  Christian  Commission  ;  in  short,  dur- 
ing the  four  years'  terrible  struggle  it  was  the  ab- 
sorbing thing  with  him.  .  It  stirred  his  religious 
being  to  its  depths,   it  enlisted  his  intellectual 
nature    in   thought   upon   the   issues    involved. 
From  beginning  to  end  of  the  long  strife,  he  had 
never  faltered.     In  its  darkest    day,  his  confi- 
dence in  God  kept  him  serene.     He  was  always 
patient  under  the  reactionary  influences  of  our 
many  reverses.     The  very  fact  that  he  had  up 
to  this  time  stood  somewhat  aloof  from  political 
parties ;  that  he  had  on  occasion,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Mexican  war,  not  hesitated  to  declare  his  in- 
dependence of  all  parties  united  in  its  support ; 
that  his  patriotism  was  not  blind  devotion  to  his 
country,  "  right  or  wrong,"  —  all  this  lifted  the 


LAST   YEARS.  161 

loyal  devotion  of  Dr.  Wayland  to  his  country, 
in  the  time  of  her  deadly  peril,  into  magnificent 
distinctness,  and  drew  from  men  of  all  parties  the 
profoundest  homage.  The  freedom  from  every 
thing  like  political  partisanship,  and  the  firm  de- 
votion to  his  great  doctrine  of  human  rights,  the 
long  antagonism  to  slavery,  and  the  unswerving 
support  of  the  war  for  our  national  existence,  gave 
him  a  towering  position  in  his  city  and  his  State. 
The  city  was  proud  of  him,  the  State  was  proud 
of  him.  His  life  since  the  resignation  of  the  pres- 
idency, his  great  activity  in  labors  philanthropic 
and  religious,  had  endeared  him,  where  before  he 
had  been  only  admired.  The  feeling  of  the  com- 
munity toward  him  had  a  conspicuous  and  most 
impressive  exhibition  in  an  incident  which  oc- 
curred when  all  was  over  and  the  nation  had 
been  saved. 

The  tidings  of  the  assassination  of  President 
Lincoln  had  fallen  as  lightning  from  heaven  upon 
the  nation  the  morning  of  that  woful  15th  of 
April,  1865.  For  a  time  all  alike  were  stunned 
and  bewildered  by  the  awful  stroke,  and  then 
slowly  woke  to  the  solemnity  of  the  dreadful 
crisis.  The  citizens  of  Providence,  as  indeed 
of  every  community,  throughout  the  early  hours 
of  that  agonizing  day,  gathered  here  and  there 
in  groups,  with  bated  breath  discussing  the  ter- 
rible event.      Slowly   the  conviction  grew  and 


152  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

took  shape  that  some  expression  must  be  given  to 
the  pent-up  anguish  of  the  lamenting  city.  But 
who  could  meet  the  crisis  with  fitting  words  ? 
To  whom  could  the  citizens  turn  in  the  hour 
of  their  desolation  for  the  thoughts  which  would 
uphold,  and  for  the  counsels  which  would  con- 
sole and  guide  them  in  this  day  of  calamity 
and  woe.  The  instinctive  feeling  was  that  Dr. 
Wayland  should  be  sought  for  this  high  occa- 
sion and  solemn  office. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  a 
gentleman  called  in  behalf  of  the  citizens  of 
Providence  to  request  him  to  attend  and  address 
a  public  meeting  in  the  evening.  Dr.  Wayland 
was  compelled  to  decline  this  invitation,  feeling 
his  strength  at  that  time  inadequate  to  the  effort. 
The  gentleman  then  said,  "Will  you  address 
them  if  they  will  come  to  your  house  ?  "  This  re- 
quest he  could  not  refuse.  Accordingly,  not  far 
from  nightfall  a  body  of  citizens,  numbering 
about  fifteen  hundred,  led  by  a  band  of  music, 
climbed  the  steep  hill,  and  gathered  about  the 
platform  which  had  been  erected  near  the  corner 
of  his  house.  The  evening  shadows  had  been 
slowly  gathering,  and  the  falling  rain  made  the 
gloom  more  palpable.  After  a  prayer  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Caswell,  Dr.  Wayland  rose  to  address 
for  the  last  time  his  fellow-citizens.  Of  his  ap- 
pearance at  that  place  and  hour  the  late  Profes- 


LAST   YEARS.  153 

sor  Diman,  himself  an  eye-witness  of  the  impres- 
sive scene,  has  eloquently  said :  "  Should  Rhode 
Island  ever  erect  a  statue  to  the  noblest  Roman 
whose  name  is  written  in  her  history,  let  the 
cunning  hand  of  the  sculptor  chisel  him  as  he 
stood  that  night,  and  by  his  own  door,  his  gray 
locks  waving  in  the  wind,  but  with  eye  un- 
dimmed  and  natural  force  unabated,  bidding  his 
fellow-citizens  be  of  good  cheer,  for  the  Lord  on 
high  was  mightier  than  the  voice  of  many  waters, 
—  his  words  finding  fit  response  in  the  solemn 
burden  of  the  Psalm  that  swelled  through  the 
leafless  branches  against  the  overhanging  black- 
ness of  the  heavens." 

In  his  address.  Dr.  Wayland  first  dwelt  upon 
the  great  martyr.  For  the  character  and  ser- 
vices of  Lincoln,  he  had  a  lofty  appreciation. 
These  he  dwelt  on  in  brief  but  fitting  eulogy. 
Then  he  gave  utterance  to  what  seemed  to  him 
the  lessons  of  an  hour  pregnant  with  moral 
issues,  vast  and  far-reaching,  and  the  address 
fitly  closed  with  words  of  sublime  trust,  of 
serene  confidence  in  God,  the  Almighty  Ruler, 
and  of  thanksgiving  for  what  had  been  wrought 
out  under  the  leadership  of  the  martyred  dead. 
He  lifted  his  audience  with  him  to  this  high 
plane  of  hope  and  comfort.  It  was  an  impres- 
sive tribute  to  his  moral  power,  to  his  command- 
ing influence,  that  as  the  great  throng  dispersed 


154  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

slowly,  not  one  there  but  felt  that  somehow  the 
dark  cloud  had  been  pierced  with  light  and  the 
awful  burden  lessened.  This  spontaneous  turn- 
ing to  Dr.  Wayland  on  the  part  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  as  the  one  man  in  all  that  city  of  thou- 
sands from  whose  lips  they  could  have  counsels 
adequate  to  such  a  crisis,  consolation  amid  such 
woe,  hopes  under  such  a  stroke,  was  the  crown 
of  that  long,  laborious,  and  lofty  career  as  a 
citizen  of  Rhode  Island. 

Up  to  the  very  close  of  his  life,  he  kept  at 
work.  His  correspondence  was  very  large.  All 
sorts  of  questions  touching  cases  of  conscience 
or  of  Church  discipline,  points  of  moral  science 
or  of  Christian  doctrine,  were  sent  him,  often  by 
unknown  correspondents.  They  were  answered. 
They  added  no  little  to  the  work  of  his  busy 
pen.  No  sooner  had  he  recovered  from  the  ill- 
ness of  1860  than  he  turned  at  once  to  author- 
ship. In  1863,  he  published  a  small  treatise 
entitled  "  Letters  on  the  Ministry  of  the  Gos- 
pel." Evidently  they  were  the  immediate  fruit 
of  the  pastorate,  in  which  he  had  labored  so  suc- 
cessfully. Exceptions  were  taken  to  the  tone 
of  the  work  as  too  darkly  portraying  the  actual 
Christianity  of  the  churches.  An  incident  in 
connection  with  the  publishing  of  the  letters  is 
truly  illustrative  of  their  author.  It  is  recorded 
by  a  clergyman,  a  much  valued  friend. 


LAST   YEARS.  155 

"  As  I  was  sitting  with  him  one  day,  not  long 
since,  in  his  study,  he  conversed  very  freely, 
with  the  tears  rolling  down  his  face,  concerning 
the  ungracious  reception  which  had  been  ac- 
corded by  the  ministry,  to  his  honest  and  ear- 
nest attempt  to  raise  the  type  of  piety  among  his 
brethren,  Tand  to  bring  about  a  more  thorough 
preaching  of  the  Gospel.  Never  can  I  forget 
the  tone  of  amazement  and  sadness  in  which  he 
raised  his  voice,  at  the  same  time  lifting  his 
clasped  hands  and  tearful  eyes  heavenward,  and 
exclaimed:  'My  God!  Thou  knowest  all  things, 
—  Thou  knowest  I  have  spoken  the  truth'  in  re- 
gard to  the  condition  of  religion  among  us,  but 
my  dear  brethren  will  not  receive  it  from  thy 
unworthy  servant.'  Then  suddenly  turning  to 
me,  with  the  smile  peculiar  to  him,  he  said, 
*But,  my  son,  we  must  not  expect  to  be  above 
our  Lord.  Perhaps  when  I  'm  in  my  grave, 
God  will  show  them  that  I  was  ri^ht.'  " 

During  the  winter  of  1863-64,  casually  open- 
ing the  life  of  Chalmers,  Dr.  Wayland's  early  in- 
terest in  the  great  Scottish  divine  was  rekindled, 
and  he  read  once  more  the  well-known  biography 
by  Dr.  Hanna.  His  visit  to  Dr.  Chalmers  dur- 
ing his  trip  to  England,  and  the  personal  ac- 
quaintance which  followed,  had  deepened  the  ad- 
miration for  this  foremost  Scotch  preacher.  It 
occurred  to  him  that  a  shorter  volume  than  Dr. 


156  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

Hanna's  biography,  setting  forth  the  "  distinctly 
Christian  and  evangelical  labors  "  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, in  which,  indeed,  he  thought  the  real  great- 
ness of  Chalmers  lay,  would  illustrate  and  enforce 
his  own  teachings  in  the  "  Letters  on  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry."  He  accordingly  prepared  and 
published  in  1864  "  A  Memoir  of  the  .Christian 
Labors,  Pastoral  and  Philanthropic,  of  Thomas 
Chalmers."  But  Dr.  Wayland's  labors  were 
fast  coming  to  their  close.  In  1865,  he  pub- 
lished in  the  "American  Presbyterian  and  Theo- 
logical Keview"  one  article  on  John  Foster's 
celebrated  letter  on  the  "  Doctrine  of  Future 
Punishment,"  and  another  on  the  "  Ministry  of 
David  Brainard."  The  revision  of  the  "  Moral 
Science,"  was  also  completed,  and  then  his  busy 
pen  had  finished  its  work. 

To  the  last,  however,  he  was  engaged  in  phil- 
anthropic efforts  of  the  humblest  type,  as  well 
as  of  the  greatest  public  importance.  While  he 
was  writing  of  Chalmers's  labors  in  the  Free 
Church,  at  St.  John's  and  St.  Andrew's,  he 
taught  a  class  in  the  Sabbath-school  of  the  colored 
church  on  Meeting  Street,  near  his  residence. 
The  heat  of  the  summer  of  1865  made  the  labors 
he  was  putting  forth  still  more  exhausting.  Fee- 
ble as  he  was,  he  went  on  September  5  to  attend 
a  meeting  for  the  organization  of  the  "  Cushing 
Institute,"  at  Ashburnham,  Mass.,  an  academy 


LAST   YEARS.  157 

of  high  grade  founded  by  his  brother-in-law, 
Thomas  P.  Gushing,  of  Boston.  Chosen  presi- 
dent of  the  Board,  at  the  request  of  his  associ- 
ates, he  gave  his  views  as  to  the  course  of  studies 
demanded  in  such  an  institution. 

"  He  mentioned  particularly  reading,  spelling, 
penmanship,  music,  grammar,  rhetoric,  geogra- 
phy, arithmetic,  geometry,  algebra,  trigonome- 
try, natural  philosophy,  botany,  physiology, 
agriculture,  drawing,  bookkeeping,  intellectual 
and  moral  philosophy,  political  economy,  and 
the  science  of  government.  In  this  plan  neither 
ancient  nor  modern  languages  found  a  place. 

"  The  scholars  \yere  to  be  carefully  instructed 
in  the  use  of  their  mother  tongue.  He  would 
have  no  classes  preparing  for  college,  on  the 
ground  that  an  arrangement  of  that  kind  might 
foster  distinctions,  excite  jealousies,  and  pro- 
duce an  unhappy  effect  on  those  students  who 
should  confine  themselves  to  the  English  studies. 
Besides,  he  had  observed  that  in  schools  where 
the  classics  are  taught  they  receive  undue  honor 
and  attention.  On  this  point  he  spoke  at  length 
and  with  great  earnestness.  He  believed  that 
the  Gushing  Institute  would  better  subserve  its 
design  by  giving  instruction  in  the  English 
branches  only." 

His  last  appearance  in  public  was  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Warren  Association  in  Providence. 
He  was  present  at  all  the  sessions  except  those 


168  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

held  in  the  evening.  The  regular  business  of 
the  association  had  been  finished  on  Thursday 
morning,  September  14,  when  Dr.  Wayland  was 
asked,  "  Will  you  address  the  association,  if  we 
decide  to  hold  an  afternoon  service  ?  "  He  con- 
sented to  the  arrangement,  and  it  was  evident 
that  he  was  deeply  interested  in  the  proposition. 
He  hurried  to  the  church  after  the  brief  inter- 
mission, and  was  in  his  seat  before  the  meeting 
was  called  to  order.  When  he  rose  to  speak, 
his  words  had  the  profound  earnestness,  but  also 
the  deep  tenderness,  he  knew  so  well  how  to 
blend  in  such  addresses.  He  did  not  know,  and 
his  brethren  could  not  know,  that  it  was  the  last 
time  his  voice  would  ever  be  heard  as  an  "  am- 
bassador of  Christ."  But  his  last  counsels  to 
his  brethren  could  not  have  been  more  suffused 
with  the  "  spiritual  mind,"  nor  more  in  keeping 
with  the  Christian  career  so  soon  to  end. 

The  debility  of  which  he  had  been  complain- 
ing for  some  months  previous  now  rapidly  in- 
creased. On  Friday,  September  22,  he  took  a 
walk  as  usual,  but  his  companion  noticed  an  un- 
wonted silence.  His  walks  had  been  the  occasions 
on  which  his  conversation  flowed  most  freely. 
On  the  day  following,  his  weakness  was  so  great 
that  he  could  with  difficulty  sign  his  name.  To 
an  intimate  Christian  friend,  who  was  by  his 
bedside  on  Sunday,  evening,  he  uttered  his 
thoughts  in  view  of  the  approaching  end. 


LAST   YEARS.  159 

"  I  feel  that  my  race  is  nearly  run.  I  have 
indeed  tried  to  do  my  duty.  I  cannot  accuse 
myself  of  having  neglected  any  known  obliga- 
tion. I  see  all  this  avails  nothing.  I  plead  no 
dependence  on  anything  but  the  righteousness 
and  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  never  en- 
joyed the  raptures  of  faith  vouchsafed  to  many 
Christians.  I  do  not  undervalue  these  feelings, 
but  it  has  not  pleased  God  to  bestow  them  upon 
me.  I  have,  however,  a  confident  hope  that  I 
am  accepted  in  the  Beloved." 

On  Monday,  a  bright  September  sun  was  shin- 
ing, and  he  was  tempted  to  rise  and  go  once 
more  into  the  garden,  in  which  every  tree  had 
been  set  out  by  his  own  hands,  and  in  which 
every  plant  had  been  placed  under  his  direction 
or  by  his  own  act.  He  wished  to  visit  the  garden 
as  a  dear  friend.  In  that,  and  in  the  one  con- 
nected with  the  president's  house,  he  had  passed 
many  of  his  happiest  hours.  No  wonder  that  he 
wanted  once  more  to  see  the  outer  world,  and 
take,  it  may  be,  a  farewell  of  it.  From  that  hour 
his  illness  grew  in  severity.  On  Tuesday  morn- 
ing he  was  stricken  with  paralysis.  Once,  by  a 
look  of  affectionate  intelligence,  and  the  answer, 
"Yes,"  to  his  oldest  son's  question,  "Do  you  know 
me,  father,"  he  showed  that  his  mind  was  still 
under  his  control.  But  unconsciousness  immedi- 
ately supervened.  His  relatives  were  all  sum- 
moned.     "  On  Saturday  afternoon,  September 


160  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

80,  1865,  at  twenty  minutes  before  six,  his  wife, 
his  three  sons,  his  sisters,  and  the  wife  of  one  of 
his  sons,  stood  by  his  bedside.  It  was  apparent 
that  a  change  was  at  hand.  His  daughter,  seeing 
that  the  end  was  near,  gently  laid  her  hand  upon 
his  cheek.  He  opened  his  eyes  with  an  expres- 
sion of  entire  consciousness,  the  same,  exactly, 
that  his  children  had  so  often  seen  on  his  face  in 
the  study,  as  he  looked  up  from  his  Bible,  and 
of  perfect  intelligence,  but  an  intelligence  not  of 
this  world.  Then  he  closed  them,  and  all  was 
over."  1 

The  next  morning,  that  of  Sunday,  the  toll- 
ing of  the  bell  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
announced  to  the  city  the  event  of  his  decease. 
The  public  journals,  the  associations  of  Baptist 
ministers  in  Boston  and  New  York,  the  alumni 
of  the  college,  hastened  to  pay  their  tributes  of 
respect  for  his  excellent  character,  eminent  ser- 
vices, and  blessed  memory.  The  funeral  took 
place  on  Wednesday  morning,  from  the  church 
where  he  had  been  a  worshiper  so  long,  and  in 
whose  pulpit  he  had  so  often  stood.  It  was 
attended  by  "  the  Corporation  and  Faculty  of 
the  University,  by  the  delegates  chosen  by  the 
Baptist  ministers  of  Boston,  by  men  of  emi- 
nence in  literature,  in  science,  in  political  station, 
by  citizens  of  Rhode  Island,  and  by  residents 
of  remote  states." 

1  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  361. 


LAST   YEARS.  161 

The  services  were  simple.  Prayer  was  offered 
and  the  Scriptures  read  by  Rev.  Dr.  S.  E.  Cald- 
well, pastor  of  the  church.  An  address  was 
made  by  Rev.  Dr.  Caswell  of  the  university, 
between  whom  and  Dr.  Wayland  had  existed 
an  unbroken  and  close  intimacy  of  more  than 
twenty  years.  Then,  after  a  closing  prayer  by 
Rev.  Dr.  Swaim,  the  remains  were  borne  to  the 
old  "  North  Burying  Ground."  There,  amid  the 
graves  of  those  he  had  loved  and  honored,  his 
own  last  resting-place  had  been  chosen,  and  there 
he  was  buried. 

On  the  Sunday  following  the  funeral,  sermons 
commemorating  Dr.  Wayland's  life  and  ser- 
vices were  preached  from  pulpits  in  Providence, 
Boston,  New  York,  and  elsewhere.  They  were 
preached  by  clergymen  of  widely  differing  views. 
It  was  fitting  that  he,  whose  spirit  was  so  catho- 
lic, should  have  this  tribute.  The  series  of  com- 
memorations was  worthily  closed  by  an  address 
to  the  alumni  of  the  college  at  the  Commence- 
ment next  ensuing,  September  4,  1866.  This 
discourse  was  given  by  Professor  George  Ide 
Chace,  of  the  University,  who  had  been  one  of 
his  colleagues  in  the  Faculty  since  the  early  days 
of  Dr.  Wayland's  presidency,  and  who  had 
known  him  during  the  intervening  years  in  daily 
and  familiar  intercourse,  —  the  intercourse  of 
friends  as  well  as  colleagues. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

DR.   WAYLAND  AS   AN  EDUCATOR. 

With  his  resignation  of  the  presidency  of 
Brown  University,  Dr.  Wayland's  active  career 
as  an  educator  ended.  His  entrance  upon  it  had 
not  been  his  original  aim.  That  aim  had  been 
the  ministry  of  the  Gospel.  He  expressed  in 
later  years  the  conviction  that  he  had  erred  in 
leaving  the  pulpit  for  the  presidential  chair. 
Any  adequate  survey  of  what  he  accomplished 
in  the  cause  of  education  is  a  sufficient  refuta- 
tion of  this  mistaken  judgment.  A  study  of 
his  life  makes  it  clear  that  he  had,  in  the  prov- 
idential ordering  of  his  career,  what  may  be 
considered  a  special  training  for  his  work  as  an 
educator.  In  fact  he  was  a  born  teacher.  He 
had  no  desire  to  acquire  knowledge  simply  to 
furnish  his  own  mind  withal.  He  could  not 
truthfully  be  described  as  a  man  with  a  great 
love  of  learning  for  its  own  sake.  His  search 
for  knowledge  was  mainly  for  purposes  of  iui- 
partation.  He  gained  few  acquisitions  outside 
the  circle  of  studies  he  was  himself  teaching. 
While  this  resulted  in  making  him  less  the  man 


DR.    WAYLAND  AS   AN  EDUCATOR.         163 

of  learning,  it  made  him,  as  often  happens,  more 
the  teacher.  The  defects  of  his  own  early  train- 
ing in  school  left  on  him  a  deep  and  lasting  im- 
pression, which  he  turned  to  good  account.  In 
his  Reminiscences,  after  recalling  an  incident  in 
his  school-life  illustrating  the  faulty  methods  of 
teaching  then  in  vogue,^  he  makes  the  comment, 
"  From  this  incident  I  have  learned  to  convey  a 
new  idea  to  the  young  with  the  greatest  simplic- 
ity in  my  power,  and  not  to  be  satisfied  until  I 
see  that  they  are  able  to  comprehend  the  radical 
conception  without  the  use  of  technical  terms." 
His  four  years  of  tutorship  at  Union  College  were 
a  direct  and  efficient  preparation  for  his  sub- 
sequent labors.  They  gave  him  insight  into 
educational  problems,  they  made  him  familiar 
with  the  inside  working  of  collegiate  institutions, 
they  gave  him  experience  in  handling  classes. 
Added  to  all  this,  was  the  influence  upon  him 
of  two  so  noted  educators  as  Dr.  Nott  and 
Professor  "Stuart.  With  both  these  men  he 
was  thrown  into  relations  of  unusual  intimacy. 
From  both  of  them  he  gained  an  enthusiasm  in 
the  work  of  teaching,  and  for  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation. Moses  Stuart  was  always  to  him  the 
ideal  teacher.  His  training,  therefore,  for  his 
post  as  an  educator  was  one  of  uncommon  breadth 
and  efficiency.     The  educational  period  in  his 

^  Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  23. 


164  FJiANCIS   WAYLAND. 

life  occupies  a  middle  position.  He  began  his 
life-work  as  a  city  pastor.  His  last  labors  were 
in  and  for  the  Christian  ministry.  This  mid- 
dle period,  —  the  best  years  of  his  life,  —  from 
1827  to  1855,  with  all  their  varied  occupation 
along  lines  of  educational  effort,  should  now  be 
fully  considered.  Of  the  outward  events  con- 
nected with  his  administration  of  the  presidency 
of  Brown  University,  account  has  been  given 
in  the  two  preceding  chapters.  His  relations 
to  collegiate,  popular,  and  theological  educa- 
tion should  now  be  detailed,  and  a  more  specific 
view  given  of  his  work  in  the  professor's  chair. 
The  salient  characteristic  of  his  career  as  a 
teacher  is  its  progressiveness,  his  unwillingness 
to  rest  in  outworn  methods,  his  desire  to  reach 
a  higher  point  in  university  training.  We  find 
that  the  work  at  Brown  University  falls  into 
two  well  marked  divisions.  Twice  he  may  be 
said  to  have  reorganized  the  institution:  first, 
when  in  1827  he  was  called  to  its  presidency; 
and  again  in  1850,  when  what  was  called  the 
"New  System"  went  into  operation  under  his 
instigation  and  leadership. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  he  seems  to  have 
had  in  mind  from  his  first  official  connection 
with  the  college  all  the  changes  which  were  in- 
troduced in  1850.  They  were,  as  proposed  in 
1827,  too  far  in  advance  of  the  time.     "  I  was 


DR.    WAY  LAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         165 

deeply  impressed  with  the  importance  of  two 
things :  first,  of  carrying  into  practice  every 
science  which  was  taught  in  theory;  and,  sec- 
ondly, of  adapting  the  whole  course  of  instruc- 
tion, as  far  as  possible,  to  the  wants  of  the  whole 
community.  The  first  seemed  to  me  all-impor- 
tant as  a  means  of  intellectual  discipline.  The 
abstract  principles  of  a  science,  if  learned  merely 
as  disconnected  truths,  are  soon  forgotten.  If 
combined  with  application  to  matters  of  actual 
existence,  they  will  be  remembered.  Nor  is  this 
all.  By  uniting  practice  with  theory,  the  mind 
acquires  the  habit  of  acting  in  obedience  to  law, 
and  thus  is  brought  into  harmony  with  a  uni- 
verse which  is  governed  by  law. 

"  In  the  second  place,  if  education  is  good  for 
one  class  of  the  community,  it  is  good  for  all 
classes.  Not  that  the  same  studies  are  to  be 
pursued  by  all,  but  that  each  one  should  have 
the  same  opportunity  of  pursuing  such  studies 
as  will  be  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  him  in 
the  course  of  life  which  he  has  chosen."  He 
further  remarks  on  his  inability  at  that  time  to 
carry  these  ideas  into  practice  that  "they  did 
not  seem  either  to  the  Faculty  or  the  Corpora- 
tion practical,  but  rather  as  visionary."  But  if 
he  did  not  at  once  succeed  in  carrying  out  his 
more  advanced  views,  he  in  the  first  decade  of 
his  presidency  transformed  the  college.     He  put 


166  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

discipline  on  a  true  basis,  made  it  thorough, 
effective,  and  salutary.  He  reconstructed  the 
teaching  of  the  college,  changed  its  methods 
and  its  spirit,  as  well  as  enlarged  its  domain. 
He  provided  those  essentials  in  a  college  system, 
too  commonly  regarded  as  subsidiaries,  —  a  well 
equipped  library  and  laboratories.  Above  all, 
he  infused  into  it  the  true  spirit  of  a  univer- 
sity, which  it  has  never  lost,  and  by  the  force  of 
which  it  has  gained  so  high  and  deserved  rank 
among  its  sister  institutions  of  New  England. 
He  accomplished  all  this  in  the  face  of  oppo- 
sition. It  was  powerful  and  prolonged.  The 
newspapers  were  arrayed  against  him.  Public 
addresses  were  aimed  against  his  plans.  He  ex- 
ercised patience,  kept  silence,  and  waited  for 
time  to  vindicate  the  wisdom  of  his  methods. 
The  opposition  was  soon  overcome.  After  a  year 
or  two  of  suspense,  his  victory  was  won.  Some 
of  his  changes  are  now  perhaps  superannuated. 
They  did  their  work  well  in  their  time,  and  must 
be  judged  by  the  existing  exigencies  and  not  by 
the  conditions  of  to-day.  His  resignation  of 
the  presidency  in  1849  was  undoubtedly  caused 
by  the  declining  number  of  students.  That 
decline  made  a  financial  crisis  in  the  history  of 
the  college,  since  it  had  a  very  limited  endow- 
ment, and  was  dependent  largely  for  its  current 
expenses,  then  very  moderate,  on  tuition  fees. 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         167 

But  even  if  the  numbers  of  the  students  had 
continued  to  increase,  as  they  did  in  the  early- 
years  of  his  work  there,  it  would  have  been 
wholly  unlike  Dr.  Wayland  not  to  push  his 
ideas  of  reform  in  collegiate  training.  The 
"Report  to  the  Corporation  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity on  Changes  in  the  System  of  Collegiate  Edu- 
cation "  embodies  those  ideas  in  the  shape  in 
which  years  of  thought  on  the  whole  subject 
had  matured  them.  The  principles  on  which 
they  were  founded,  the  special  reasons  for  adopt- 
ing them  in  Brown  University,  have  already 
been  given  in  the  survey  of  his  career  as  presi- 
dent. It  is  here  in  place,  to  consider  the  spe- 
cific plans  ^  he  proposed  in  accordance  with  his 
repeated  statement  that  higher  education  should 
adapt  its  instruction  to  the  wants  of  the  whole 
community. 

1.  "The  present  system  of  adjusting  colle- 
giate study  to  a  fixed  term  of  four  years,  or  to 
any  other  term,  must  be  abandoned,  and  every 
student  be  allowed,  within  limits  to  be  deter- 
mined by  statute,  to  carry  on,  at  the  same 
time,  a  greater  or  less  number  of  courses,  as  he 
may  choose. 

2.  "  The  time  allotted  to  each  particular 
course  of  instruction  would  be  determined  by 
the  nature  of  the  course  itself,  and  not  by  its 

1  Beport,  pp.  51-53. 


168  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

supposed  relation  to  the  wants  of  any  particular 
profession. 

3.  "  The  various  courses  should  be  so  ar- 
ranged that,  in  so  far  as  it  is  practicable,  every 
student  might  study  what  he  chose,  all  that  he 
chose,  and  nothing  but  what  he  chose.  The 
Faculty,  however,  at  the  request  of  a  parent  or 
guardian  should  have  authority  to  assign  to  any 
student  such  courses  as  they  might  deem  for  his 
advantage. 

4.  "  Every  course  of  instruction,  after  it  has 
been  commenced,  should  be  continued  without 
interruption  until  it  is  completed. 

5.  "  In  addition  to  the  present  courses  of  in- 
struction, such  others  should  be  established  as 
the  wants  of  the  various  classes  of  the  commu- 
nity require. 

6.  "Every  student  attending  any  particular 
course  should  be  at  liberty  to  attend  any  other 
that  he  may  desire. 

7.  .  .  .  "  No  student  would  be  under  any  ob- 
ligation to  proceed  to  a  degree,  unless  he  chose. 

8.  "  Every  student  would  be  entitled  to  a  cer- 
tificate of  such  proficiency  as  he  may  have  made, 
in  every  course  that  he  has  pursued." 

These  were  the  proposed  changes  from  the 
former  system  of  study  in  the  college.  They 
were  followed  by  an  outline  of  courses,  fifteen 
in  number.     The  courses  in  Latin  and  Greek 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         169 

were  to  occupy  two  years,  as  also  that  in  Pure 
Mathematics.  The  course  in  English  Language 
and  Rhetoric  was  to  occupy  but  one  year,  and 
that  of  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy  one 
year.  But  among  these  courses  was  to  be  one 
on  the  Science  of  Teaching,  one  on  the  Princi- 
ples of  Agriculture,  one  on  the  application  of 
Chemistry  to  the  Arts,  and  one  on  the  Science 
of  Law.  It  is  evident  that  Dr.  Wayland  did 
not  put  this  forth  as  any  scheme  of  complete 
education.  It  was  simply  what  he  judged  could 
be  wisely  attempted  in  his  own  college.  He  fol- 
lows the  outlines  of  such  courses  with  this  re- 
mark :  "  It  by  no  means  is  to  be  taken  for 
granted,  in  a  country  like  our  own,  that  every 
college  is  to  teach  the  same  studies,  and  to  the 
same  extent.  It  would  be  far  better  that  each 
should  consult  the  wants  of  its  own  locality,  and 
do  that  best  for  which  it  possesses  the  greatest 
facilities.  Here  would  arise  opportunities  for 
diversified  forms  of  excellence ;  the  knowledge 
most  wanted  would  the  more  easily  become  dif- 
fused, and  the  general  progress  of  science  would 
receive  an  important  impulse  from  every  insti- 
tution of  learning  in  our  land." 

The  Report  also  advocated  a  change  in  the 
terms  of  support  for  professors.  Instead  of  re- 
ceiving from  the  College  Treasurer  a  fixed  sum 
as  salary,  a  given  income  was  to  be  assigned 


170  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

to  each  professor  on  some  equitable  principle. 
Then  the  remainder  of  his  compensation  was 
to  depend  upon  the  fees  for  his  courses  from 
students  taking  them.  He  further  advocated  as 
deserving  of  consideration  a  system  of  privat- 
docenten  such  as  is  found  in  German  universi- 
ties. Finally  he  considered  the  question  of  aca- 
demic degrees.  After  unfolding  the  meaning  of 
an  academical  degree  and  discussing -the  privi- 
leges conveyed  by  it,  he  pursued  an  inquiry 
into  the  "  statutory  requirements  which  have 
governed  colleges  and  universities  in  the  con- 
ferring of  degrees."  In  this  he  confines  his 
attention  to  the  universities  of  Great  Britain. 
The  preliminary  discussion  of  the  subject  is 
meagre,  and  only  serves  as  a  basis  for  indicating 
his  views  in  general. 

1.  "  The  degree  of  A.  M.  as  well  as  that  of 
A.  B.  should  be  made  to  signify  a  certain 
amount  of  knowledge,"  in  other  words,  be  con- 
ferred upon  examination  and  not  in  course. 

2.  For  the  given  amount  of  Latin,  Greek, 
Mathematics,  etc.,  as  ordinarily  required  for  the 
A.  B.  degree,  equivalents  might  be  accepted. 

He  anticipated  an  objection  to  this  plan  in 
its  probable  efPect  in  diminishing  the  amount 
of  classical  .study.  As  this  passage  defines  his 
position  on  this  question,  it  should  be  quoted  at 
length. 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         171 

"  If  by  placing  Latin  and  Greek  upon  their 
own  merits,  they  are  unable  to  retain  their 
present  place  in  the  education  of  civilized  and 
Christianized  man,  then  let  them  give  place  to 
something  better.  They  have,  by  right,  no  pre- 
eminence over  other  studies,  and  it  is  absurd  to 
claim  it  for  them.  But  we  go  further.  In  our 
present  system  we  devote  some  six  or  seven 
years  to  the  compulsory  study  of  the  classics. 
Besides  innumerable  academies,  we  have  one 
hundred  and  twenty  colleges,^  in  which  for  a 
large  part  of  the  time  classical  studies  occupy 
the  labors  of  the  student.  And  what  is  the 
fruit  ?  How  many  of  these  students  read  either 
classical  Greek  or  Latin  after  they  leave  college  ? 
If,  with  all  this  labor  we  fail  to  imbue  our  young 
men  with  a  love  for  the  classics,  is  there  any 
reason  to  fear  that  any  change  will  render  their 
position  less  advantageous  ?  Is  there  not  rea- 
son to  hope,  that  by  rendering  this  study  less 
compulsory,  and  allowing  those  who  have  a  taste 
for  it  to  devote  themselves  more  thoroughly  to 
classical  reading,  we  shall  raise  it  from  its  pres- 
ent depression,  and  derive  from  it  all  the  ben- 
efit which  it  is  able  to  confer  ?  " 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  Dr. 
Wayland's  expressed  sympathy  with  the  views 
of  Herbert  Spencer  on  education.  In  1862,  he 
1  This  was  in  1850. 


172  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

wrote  his  son,  "I  have  read  Herbert  Spencer 
through,  and  some  of  the  essays  twice,  and  have 
read  his  vohime  on  education.  .  .  .  His  book 
will  do  much  to  change  the  opinions  of  the  civ- 
ilized world.  ...  As  to  the  worth  of  knowledge 
he  is  very  strong.  Here,  he  and  I  are  aiming 
at  the  same  thing.  I  did  not  expect  to  see  in 
my  day  any  one  with  whose  views  I  could  so 
sincerely  sympathize."  Later  on,  Dr.  Way  land 
said  of  the  changes  in  the  system  of  instruction 
at  Brown  University  actually  adopted  in  1850 
by  the  Corporation,  "  they  did  not  go  so  far  as  I 
would  have  chosen,  and  did  not  with  sufficient 
freedom  carry  out  the  principles  on  which  (they) 
were  founded.  It  was  partly  a  compromise  be- 
tween the  old  ideas  and  the  new,  and  was,  per- 
haps, the  best  arrangement  that  could  be 
adopted."  It  will  put  Dr.  Wayland's  position 
as  an  advocate  of  such  changes  in  the  collegiate 
course  in  a  clearer  light,  if  the  attitude  of  other 
prominent  colleges  toward  the  elective  system 
be  pointed  out.  In  the  University  of  Virginia 
the  scheme  of  instruction  never  contemplated 
a  fixed  and  uniform  curriculum  of  study  to  be 
pursued  by  every  student  alike  without  discrim- 
ination. The  elective  method,  and  no  other, 
has  been  in  vogue  there  from  its  origin.  To 
that  University  belongs  the  honor  then  of  being 
the  oldest  advocate  of  election  in  studies. 


DR.    WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.  173 

From  an  elaborate  Report  to  the  Board  of 
Overseers  of  Harvard  College  by  President 
Eliot  for  1883-84,  the  following  interesting  facts 
in  the  history  of  elective  studies  in  that  institu- 
tion have  been  obtained.  As  early  as  1824  the 
"Juniors  could  choose  a  substitute  for  thirty- 
eight  lessons  in  Hebrew,  and  Seniors  had  a 
choice  between  Chemistry  and  Fluxions."  From 
that  time  on  for  twenty-five  years  there  was  a 
tendency  to  develop  the  elective  system  more 
fully.  In  1838  "  Professor  Beck  and  Professor 
Felton  proposed  to  President  Quincy  to  require 
of  all  (students)  only  the  classical  studies  of 
the  Freshman  year,"  and  enforced  their  pro- 
posal with  the  statement  that  probably  "  a  lib- 
erty of  choice  will  increase  the  zeal  and  appli- 
cation of  students  in  the  classical  departments, 
and  raise  materially  the  standard  of  scholar- 
ship." ^  The  Faculty  Records  show  that  up  to 
the  year  1849,  the  elective  system  was  growing 
in  favor. 2 

With  the  advent  of  President  Sparks  in  1849 
there  came  a  reactionary  movement,  which  for  a 
time  impeded  the  development  of  the  elective 
principle  in  college  studies.  He  was  its  decided 
opponent,  and  for  several  years  it  was  not  only 
held  in  check,  but  was  seriously  curtailed.^     The 

1  Bepmi;  of  President  Eliot  for  1883-84,  p.  11. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  11-17.  8  Ibid.  pp.  18,  19. 


174  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

expansion  of  the  system  into  its  present  propor- 
tions at  Harvard  University  dates  from  the  year 
1865-66. 

Yale  College  appears  to  have  been  much 
slower  than  Harvard  in  introducing  to  students 
the  privilege  of  election.  "  The  present  system 
of  elective  studies  extending  through  Junior  and 
Senior  years  of  the  college  course,  was  adopted 
in  1876.  For  many  years  before  that,  there 
had  been  a  very  limited  option  open  to  stu- 
dents." ^  At  Princeton  College  there  had  been 
some  optional  studies,  but  not  until  President 
McCosh  entered  on  his  office  in  1868  was 
the  elective  system  pursued  to  any  extent.  It 
thus  appears  that  at  the  time  President  Way- 
land  proposed  his  "  New  System  "  to  the  Cor- 
poration of  Brown  University,  the  University 
of  Virginia  was  the  only  institution  in  which 
the  plan  of  elective  courses  had  been  thoroughly 
organized.  The  attitude  of  Harvard  College 
was  at  that  time,  under  President  Sparks,  hos- 
tile to  its  continuance,  although  a  considerable 
body  of  the  professors  there  were  and  had  been 
for  some  time  earnest  advocates  of  election. 
Neither  Yale  nor  Princeton  had  introduced  it. 
Dr.  Wayland  was  regarded  as  an  iconoclast  in 
the  matter  of  study  of  the  classics,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  his  ground  was  precisely  that 

^  MS.  Letter  of  Professor  Dexter, 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         175 

taken  by  Professor  Beck  and  Professor  Felton 
of  Harvard  College  in  1838.  Dr.  Wayland 
must  therefore  be  accorded  the  credit  of  taking 
up  and  pushing  the  scheme  of  elective  study  at 
a  time,  1850,  when  it  found  favor  in  no  North- 
ern college,  and  existed  only  in  the  University 
of  Virginia.  He  had  advocated  boldly  the  adop- 
tion of  the  elective  system.  Such  words  as  these, 
"the  various  courses  should  be  so  arranged,  that 
in  so  far  as  it  is  practicable,  every  student  may 
study  what  he  chooses,  all  that  he  chooses,  and 
nothing  hut  what  he  chooses"  were  far  in  ad- 
vance of  what  educators  of  the  New  Englander 
thought  wise.  They  seem  to-day  to  some  of 
the  best  friends  of  higher  education  too  extreme. 
But  in  all  our  larger  institutions  the  elective 
system  is  pursued  to  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
and  the  tendency  all  the  while  is  toward  a  wid- 
ening of  the  plan.  In  other  words,  the  drift  of 
our  higher  education  has  been  steadily  toward 
the  principles  laid  down  by  Dr.  Wayland  in  his 
"  Report  on  the  Changes  in  the  System  of  Col- 
legiate Education,"  made  to  the  Corporation  of 
Brown  University  in  1850.  These  views  of  edu- 
cation were  not  on  his  part  the  result  of  read- 
ing, nor  of  observation.  He  saw  nothing  of 
German  universities  while  abroad  in  1840.  He 
saw  little  of  the  English  universities,  though  he 
visited  them.      He  never  relied  much  in  form- 


176  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

ing  his  opinions  on  what  other  men  had  said. 
In  constructing  his  text-books,  his  research  was 
comparatively  small.  He  thought  things  out 
for  himself,  cared  little  for  a  reputation  for 
learning,  and  in  the  case  of  higher  education 
trusted  mainly  to  his  own  observation  and  ex- 
perience. And  yet  he  seems  very  accurately 
to  have  anticipated  what  would  be  the  type  of 
education  sought  in  American  colleges.  While 
his  main  work  and  deepest  interest  were  in  the 
field  of  higher  education,  his  position  as  an 
educator  cannot  be  estimated  without  reference 
to  his  efforts  for  popular  and  secondary  educa- 
tion. 

No  sooner  had  he  assumed  the  presidency  of 
the  college  than  he  was  appointed  chairman  of 
a  committee  of  citizens  "  to  whom  was  referred 
the  consideraton  of  the  present  school  system  of 
the  town  of  Providence."  The  report  drawn  up 
by  him  and  printed  in  the  "  American  Journal  of 
Education  "  for  July,  1828,  discusses  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  any  system  of  public  schools  is. 
founded,  especially  under  our  form  of  govern- 
ment, the  mode  of  instruction  to  be  employed, 
the  kind  of  text-books,  the  need  of  supervision  ; 
in  fact  it  was  for  the  time  an  exhaustive  discus- 
sion of  the  subject  then  growing  into  vast  im- 
portance. "  It  forms,"  said  the  editor  of  the 
"  Journal  of  Education,"  "  a  useful  document 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         177 

for  reference,  whether  for  information  relating 
to  plans  of  arrangement  for  public  education, 
or  for  direct  assistance  in  teaching." 

Dr.  Wajdand's  democratic  tendency  was  no- 
where more  effectively  shown  than  in  his  sym- 
pathy with  every  form  of  popular  education. 
He  lost  no  opportunities  for  evincing  this  sym- 
pathy. It  was  manifested  in  the  very  begin- 
ning of  his  educational  career.  It  lasted  to  the 
year  of  his  death.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no 
movement  in  the  cause  of  public  education  in 
Rhode  Island  was  undertaken  without  his  coun- 
sel. That  well-known  friend  and  promoter  of 
education,  Hon.  Henry  Barnard,  who  held  in 
Rhode  Island  from  1843  to  1849  the  position  of 
Commissioner  of  Public  Schools,  testified  in  the 
"  American  Journal  of  Education  "  to  Dr.  Way- 
land's  active  counsel  and  cooperation  ''in  the 
great  work  of  organizing  an  efficient  system  of 
public  instruction  for  Rhode  Island."  As  one 
of  the  founders  and  the  first  president  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Instruction,  he  did  much 
toward  making  that  body  the  influential  and 
honorable  educational  society  it  is  to-day.  His 
interest  in  the  founding  of  libraries  was  con- 
spicuous. One  of  his  first  labors  as  president  of 
the  college  was  to  place  the  library  on  a  liberal 
foundation.  What  that  library  is  to-day,  it  is 
mainly  through  his  far-sighted  efforts.     But  he 


178  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

believed  that  towns  should  have  their  libraries  as 
means  of  popular  education.  He  assisted  in 
founding  the  Providence  Athenaeum,  giving  the 
address  at  its  opening.  He  was  instrumental,  by 
the  offer  of  five  hundred  dollars  towards  its  found- 
ing, in  securing,  in  the  year  1850,  a  free  library 
for  the  town  of  Wayland,  Mass.  As  a  result  of 
this  successful  movement,  an  act  was  passed  in 
1851  by  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  which 
empowered  all  the  towns  of  the  State  "  to  raise 
money  by  taxation  for  the  support  of  free  town 
libraries."  His  address  at  the  dedication  of  the 
Free  Academy,  Norwich,  Conn.,  in  1856,  gives 
in  striking  form  the  proof  of  his  interest  in 
popular  education.  "  I  regard,"  he  said,  "  with 
special  interest  the  announcement  that  young 
men  are  here  to  be  fitted  for  the  practical  em- 
ployments  of  life.  ...  I  look  upon  the  practical 
arts  as  a  great  triumph  of  human  intellect.  Our 
admiration  for  this  sort  of  talent  is  legitimate. 
We  do  well  to  revere  the  genius  of  Milton  and 
Dante  and  Goethe.  But  there  is  talent  in  a 
cotton-mill  as  well  as  in  an  epic.  And  I  have 
often  been  deeply  impressed,  as  I  have  stood  in 
the  midst  of  its  clattering  machinery,  with  the 
thought,  how  great  an  expenditure  of  mind  has 
been  required  to  produce  these  spindles,  looms, 
and  engines."  Almost  the  last  effort,  certainly 
the  last  journey,  of  his  life,  was  made  in  behalf 


DR.  WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         179 

of  popular  education  when  in  September,  1865, 
he  went  to  Ashburnham,  Mass.,  to  assist  in 
organizing  the  Gushing  Institute.  Allusion  has 
already  been  made  (page  78)  to  the  request  of 
the  Hon.  J.  Forsyth,  Secretary  of  State,  that 
Dr.  Wayland  would  give  his  views  on  the  best 
method  of  utilizing  the  Smithsonian  bequest. 
The  two  plans  most  urged  were  the  formation 
of  a  National  Library  and  the  organization  of 
some  body  for  scientific  research.  Neither  of 
these  seemed  to  Dr.  Wayland  fitted  to  meet  the 
full  scope  of  the  design  of  the  testator. 

The  plan  which  Dr.  Wayland  submitted  in 
the  following  October  was  that  of  a  National 
University,  ^  on  the  ground  that  this  scheme 
would  most  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
countiy.  In  defining  its  functions  he  said,  "  The 
popular  place  to  be  occupied  by  such  an  institu- 
tion would  be  the  space  between  the  close  of  a 
collegiate  education  and  a  professional  school. 
.  .  .  The  demand  for  such  advanced  instruc- 
tion now  exists  very  extensively.  A  considerable 
portion  of  our  best  scholars  graduate  as  early 
as   their   nineteenth,  twentieth,  or   twenty-first 

1  The  recent  proposals  to  establish  a  National  University  at 
Washington,  submitted  to  Congress,  invest  Dr.  Wayland's  pro- 
ject with  fresh  interest.  Should  they  be  carried  out,  it  will 
only  be  one  more  instance  of  his  g^eat  acumen  in  forecasting 
the  future  trend  of  the  educational  movement  in  America. 


180  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

years.  If  they  are  sufficiently  wealthy,  they  pre- 
fer to  wait  a  year  before  studying  their  profes- 
sion. Some  travel,  some  read,  some  remain  as 
resident  graduates,  and  many  more  teach  school 
for  a  year  or  two,  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing 
their  studies.  They  would  gladly  resort  to  an 
institution  in  which  their  time  might  be  profit- 
ably employed.  The  rapidly  increasing  wealth 
of  our  country  will  very  greatly  increase  the 
number  of  such  students. 

"The  advantages  which  would  result  from 
such  an  institution  are  various.  It  would  raise 
up  and  send  abroad  in  the  several  professions  a 
new  grade  of  scholars,  and  thus  greatly  add  to 
the  intellectual  power  of  the  nation.  But,  es- 
pecially, it  would  furnish  teachers,  professors, 
and  officers  of  every  grade  for  all  our  other  in- 
stitutions. " 

No  sensible  man  would  think  of  questioning 
the  value  of  what  the  Smithsonian  Institute  has 
accomplished  for  scientific  research.  Its  praise 
is  in  all  lands.  But  it  may  be  questioned 
whether,  after  all,  Dr.  Wayland's  idea  of  a  Na- 
tional University  was  not  broader  in  its  scope 
and  more  diffusive  of  educational  results  over 
the  whole  country  than  the  project  of  a  library, 
or  the  institution  as  organized  on  its  present 
basis.  Certain  it  is  that  the  prosperous  career 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  at  Baltimore, 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         181 

founded  a  generation  later,  illustrates  and  con- 
firms the  justice  of  his  position  as  to  the  need  of 
such  an  institution. 

His  views  of  theological  education  seemed  to 
many  of  his  brethren  superficial.  In  his  sermon 
at  Rochester  on  the  "Apostolic  Ministry,"  he 
was  thought  by  some  to  have  depreciated  the 
necessity  for  a  learned  ministry.  It  is  plain 
that  he  distrusted  some  of  the  tendencies  of  the- 
ological seminaries.  On  reading  the  life  of  Dr. 
Archibald  Alexander,  he  wrote  the  biographer, 
Rev.  James  W.  Alexander,  D.  D.,  of  New  York, 
a  letter  expressing  his  very  high  regard  for  both 
the  biography  and  the  biographer,  giving  his 
own  personal  recollections  of  Dr.  Archibald 
Alexander,  and  closing  his  letter  thus  :  — 

"  I  now  see  why  Princeton  has  made  good 
preachers.  I  agree  with  your  Presbyterian  doc- 
trine very  well  on  most  points,  especially  on  the 
marked  prominence  you  give  to  the  work  of 
Christ.  I  differ  from  you  in  some  respects. 
You  make  the  gospel  more  rectanglar  and  closely 
reticulated  than  1  do.  You  see  clearly,  where 
I  only  have  an  opinion.  But  you  make  preachers. 
The  tendency  of  seminaries  is  to  become  schools 
for  theological  and  philological  learning  and 
elegant  literature,  rather  than  schools  to  make 
preachers  of  the  gospel.  With  every  year  the 
general  tendency  is  in  this  direction,  as  I  think 


182  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

I  have  observed.  I  have  thought  this  of  Prince- 
ton. As  I  would  have  asked  your  father,  so 
may  I  ask  you,  whether  he  ever  observed  it  and 
feared  for  this  tendency?" 

This  letter  began  a  correspondence  between 
the  two  on  this  subject,  in  which  their  opinions 
were  found  to  be  in  general  accord.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander, who  had  exchanged  a  chair  in  Princeton 
Seminary  for  a  pulpit  in  New  York  city,  at 
once  and  cordially  replied  to  Dr.  Wayland's 
letter,  saying  among  other  things,  "  Most  heart- 
ily do  I  assent  to  your  remarks  about  the  literary 
tendencies  of  our  theological  seminaries.  I  feel 
it  in  my  heart.  Having  left  the  desk  for  the 
pulpit,  I  feel  it  more."  Later  he  modified 
this  opinion  somewhat,  and  wrote  Dr.  Wayland, 
"  Remembering  the  entire  histor}^  of  Princeton 
I  can  speak  confidently  as  a  witness,  though  I 
wish  to  be  modest  as  a  judge.  On  the  whole, 
the  difference  between  the  style  of  preaching  of 
the  first  and  last  students  is  less  marked  than  I 
thought,  till  I  came  coolly  to  consider  it ;  and 
yet  the  tendency  is  decided  toward  learned,  ele- 
gant, rhetorical  sermons.  My  father  saw  this,  he 
labored  against  it ;  his  own  practice  was  against 
it.  But  I  do  not  know  that  he  ever  ascribed  the 
evil  to  seminaries.  In  my  poor  opinion  the  evil 
cannot  be  laid  at  the  door  of  seminaries,  as  such, 
any  more  than  of  colleges." 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         183 

It  would  be  unjust  to  represent  Dr.  Wayland 
as  opposed  to  theological  seminaries.  He  owed 
too  much  to  the  seminary  which  had  given  him 
the  benefit  of  the  teachings  of  Moses  Stuart,  to 
take  any  such  attitude.  It  is  plain,  however, 
that  he  would  modify  the  curriculum  as  gen- 
erally prescribed.  He  would  make  such  institu- 
tions more  schools  for  Biblical  study,  and  less 
schools  of  systematic  theology.  ^  His  position  in 
regard  to  qualifications  for  the  ministry  was 
this  :  that  no  church  could  rightfully  exact  of  all 
candidates  for  the  sacred  office  that  they  should 
have  had  a  specific  amount  of  literary  or  theo- 
logical training;  that  there  might  be  cases  in 
which  a  man  with  the  proper  gifts,  and  these 
trained  as  best  he  could,  should  be  admitted  at 
once  to  the  ministry.  He  believed  undoubtedly 
in  lay  preaching.  His  sermon  at  Rochester 
makes  this  clear.  His  views  on  the  whole  sub- 
ject are  contained  in  his  Reminiscences.  They 
are  well  worth  quoting :  — 

"  I  was  said  to  be  opposed  to  ministerial  edu- 
cation because  I  held  that  a  man  with  the  proper 
moral  qualifications  might  be  called  to  the  min- 
istry by  any  church,  and  be  a  useful  minister  of 
Christ,  and  that  we  had  no  right  to  exclude  such 

^  "  I  well  remember  a  conversation  which  I  once  had  with 
Professor  Stuart  bearing  on  this  point.  He  wanted  to  see  a 
theological  seminary  in  which  nothing  should  be  studied  but 
the  Scriptures.  —  Life^  vol.  i.  p.  197. 


184  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

a  man  because  he  had  not  gone  through  a  nine 
or  ten  years'  course  of  study.  God  calls  men  to 
the  ministry  by  bestowing  upon  them  suitable 
endowments,  and  an  earnest  desire  to  use  them 
for  his  service.  Of  those  thus  called,  some  may 
not  be  by  nature  adapted  to  the  prosecution  of  a 
regular  course  of  study.  Many  others  are  too 
old.  Some  are  men  with  families.  Only  a  por- 
tion are  of  an  age  and  under  conditions  which 
will  allow  them  to  undertake  what  is  called  a 
regular  training  for  the  ministry,  that  is,  tv/o  or 
three  years  in  an  academy,  four  years  in  college, 
and  three  years  in  a  seminary.  But  does  not 
every  man  require  the  improvement  of  his  mind, 
in  order  to  preach  the  gospel  ?  I  think  he  does. 
His  faculties,  all  of  them,  are  given  to  him  to  be 
used  in  the  service  of  God,  and  the  more  he  can 
do  to  render  them  efficient,  the  more  he  will 
have  to  consecrate  to  that  service.  But  this  is 
to  be  conditioned  by  the  circumstances  under 
which  he  has  been  placed.  A  theological  semi- 
nary should  be  so  constructed  as  to  give  the 
greatest  assistance  to  each  of  these  various 
classes  of  candidates.  Some  may  be  able  to  take 
a  smaller,  others  a  greater  amount  of  study. 
Let  each  be  at  liberty  to  take  what  he  can,  and 
then  the  seminary  is  at  rest.  It  has  done  what 
it  could.  The  rest  is  left  to  Providence." 
His  idea  of  what  should  make  a  preacher  was 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         185 

rather  high  than  low.  He  insisted  that  every 
man  called  to  the  ministry  should  cultivate  his 
powers  to  the  utmost.  He  placed  little  stress 
on  rhetorical  effect ;  he  deemed  too  much  emo- 
tional appeal  weakness  rather  than  strength ; 
he  thoroughly  disbelieved  in  having  illustration 
usurp  the  place  of  discussion.  Men  who  pur- 
sued studies  under  him  with  a  view  to  the  min- 
istry found  him  no  lenient  critic.  In  fact  what 
he  contended  for  was  that  moral  qualifications 
and  natural  gifts  should  count  for  all  they  are 
worth  in  deciding  who  are  called  to  preach  the 
gospel. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Dr.  Wayland's  work 
as  an  educator  was  moulded  by  his  deep  inter- 
est in  the  common  people.  He  was  by  nature 
opposed  to  all  artificial  class  distinctions.  He 
disliked  them  in  education  as  much  as  in  society. 
"  We  are  a  middling4nterest  people,"  he  wrote 
of  the  Baptists  to  Rev.  Dr.  Jeter,  and  there  is  no 
better  interest. ^^  From  that  stock  he  had  come. 
The  memory  of  his  father  and  mother  kept  him 
true  to  it.  No  man  was  more  free  from  all  vul- 
gar and  cheap  declamation  against  aristocracies. 
But  he  kept  his  eyes  open  always  to  the  latent 
capacities  slumbering  in  the  common  people. 
He  framed  his  views  of  education  to  develop 
these,  and  at  the  same  time  to  secure  the  higher 
education.      He   kept   steadily  before   him  the 


186  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

nature  of  republican  institutions,  and  wrought 
out  all  his  plans  of  education  on  the  principle 
that,  whatever  system  obtained  in  the  Old  World, 
American  education  must  consult  American  in- 
stitutions. The  interests  of  both  are  insepar- 
ably intertwined. 

Dr.  Wayland's  work  as  an  educator  could 
hardly  have  been  accomplished  but  for  his  prac- 
tical experience  as  a  teacher  in  the  class-room. 
That  experience  deepened  his  interest  in  all  the 
shifting  phases  of  educational  plans.  It  brought 
to  him  light  in  their  discussion.  He  was  little 
of  a  theorist.  In  education,  as  in  other  mat- 
ters, he  brought  all  questions  to  practical  tests. 
But  his  success  as  a  teacher  was  so  marked  that 
his  experience  was  no  unsafe  guide.  It  may  be 
indeed  questioned  whether  Dr.  Wayland  in  the 
class-room  was  not  on  his  highest  vantage 
ground,  or,  if  this  be  too  extreme  a  statement, 
whether  this  was  not  one  of  the  points  at  which 
his  real  greatness  could  be  best  measured.  It 
was  with  him  a  cardinal  principle  of  pedagogics 
that  the  class  should  understand  that  his  inter- 
est in  the  subject  was  no  more  vital  than  theirs. 
"  Therefore,"  he  said,  "  I  not  only  allowed,  but 
encouraged,  my  class  to  ask  questions  with  ref- 
erence to  any  portion  of  the  lesson  recited,  or 
of  the  lecture  delivered."  The  class-room  thus 
immediately  became  a  centre  of  mental  life  for 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         187 

the  class.  The  process  of  question  and  answer 
kindled  the  interest  of  the  student  in  the  study. 
To  every  honest  question  he  listened  with  con- 
siderate patience,  now  and  then  "  answering  a 
fool  according  to  his  folly,"  but  rarely  having  to 
put  down  a  flippant  or  hopelessly  dull  inquirer.^ 
When,  on  one  occasion,  while  the  class  was  en- 
gaged upon  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  a 
student  raised  objections  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  followed  up  his  inquiries 
by  saying,  "For  instance,  take  the  book  of 
Proverbs.  Certainly  it  needed  no  inspiration  to 
write  that  portion  of  the  Bible.  A  man  not  in- 
spired could  have  done  it  as  well.  Indeed,  I 
have  often  thought  that  I  could  write  as  good 
proverbs  myself."  "  Very  well,  my  son  "  (so  he 
addressed  his  pupils,  in  later  years  at  least), 
"  perhaps  you  can.  Suppose  you  make  the  ex- 
periment. Prepare  a  few  proverbs  and  read 
them  to  the  class  to-morrow.  The  next^  While 
lecturing  on  the  subject  of  miracles,  a  member 
of  the  class,  not  satisfied  with  the  refutation  of 
Hume's  argument  against  miracles  which  had 
been  given,  put  his  objections  in  this  form: 
"What  would  you  say.  Dr.  Wayland,  if  I 
stated  that,  as  I  was  coming  up  College  Street, 
I  saw  the  lamp-post  at  the  corner  dance ? "  "I 
should  ask  you  where  you  had  been,  my  son," 

^  Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  250  et  seq. 


188  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

was  the  reply.  But  an  honest  inquirer  never 
met  with  rebuff  of  any  sort.  The  class-room 
was  often  made  a  place  of  discipline  in  clearness 
of  statement.  It  was  that  element  in  writing 
and  speaking  which  he  most  highly  prized,  and 
which  he  most  insisted  on  in  the  questions  so 
freely  allowed  to  be  put  him  by  his  classes.  He 
introduced  a  method  of  recitation  which  tended 
directly  to  foster  the  habit  of  clear  thinking  and 
ready  utterance  on  the  part  of  his  pupils.  The 
student  was  accustomed  "  to  make  out  the 
analysis,  skeleton,  or  plan  of  the  lesson  to  be  re- 
cited. He  was  expected  to  commence,  and  with- 
out question  or  answer,  to  proceed  in  his  recita- 
tion as  long  as  might  be  required.  The  next 
who  was  called  on  took  up  the  passage  where  his 
predecessor  left  it;  and  thus  it  continued  (ex- 
cept as  there  was  interruption  by  inquiry  or 
explanation)  until  the  close."  He  placed  great 
stress  on  an  analytic  habit  of  mind,  and  equal 
stress  on  the  ability  of  a  student  to  frame,  while 
on  his  feet,  a  succinct  and  clear  expression  of 
thought. 

More  than  one  jurist  of  eminence  who  had 
been  among  his  pupils  bore  testimony  to  the 
great  gifts  he  had  as  a  teacher.  That  of  Hon. 
C.  S.  Bradley,  who  was  chief  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Rhode  Island,  sums  up  in 
few  words  the  great  qualities  of  his  teaching. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         189 

"  The  singular  rapidity  with  which  he  seized 
upon  the  strong  points  of  whatever  subject  was 
under  discussion  in  the  class-room,  the  tenacity 
with  which  he  held  all  the  disputants  to  the  pre- 
cise issue,  brushing  aside  the  rubbish  of  irrele- 
vant and  inapposite  details  and  obliging  the 
pupil  to  deal  with  the  vital  principles  which  lay 
at  the  foundation  of  the  immediate  topic  under 
consideration,  and  above  all,  the  constant  habit 
of  exact  and  exhaustive  analysis  which  he  coun- 
seled and  even  compelled  the  pupil  to  pursue, 
—  all  this  was  an  admirable  preparation  for  the 
profitable  study  and  successful  practice  of  the 
law."  Perhaps  there  could  be  no  stronger  trib- 
ute to  a  teacher's  gifts  and  methods  than  this 
testimony  of  an  eminent  lawyer. 

Professor  George  P.  Fisher,  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity, one  of  his  most  distinguished  pupils, 
bears  similar  testimony.^  "  As  a  teacher,  Dr. 
Way  land  had  preeminent  gifts.  If  he  did  not, 
like  Socrates,  follow  up  his  pupil  with  a  per- 
petual cross-examination,  he  set  before  himself 
the  same  end,  that  of  eliciting  the  pupil's  own 
mental  activity.  He  aimed  to  spur  him  to  the 
work  of  thinking  for  himself  and  of  thinking 
soundly.  He  had  a  spice  of  humor  in  his  na- 
ture, and  this  lent  an  additional  zest  to  his  terse, 
colloquial  expressions  in  the  class-room.      The 

^  New  Englander,  vol,  fecv.  I  p.  139. 


190  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

truth  that  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun, 
as  far  as  the  essential  traits  of  man  are  con- 
cerned, he  embodied  in  the  saying  that  '  human 
nature  has  very  few  new  tricks.'  On  one 
occasion  he  had  listened  with  his  usual  patience 
to  the  persistent  questioning  of  a  pupil  as  to 
how  we  know  a  certain  intuitive  truth  or  axiom. 
At  length,  his  previous  answers  not  having 
silenced  the  inquirer,  he  broke  out  with  the  em- 
phatic response  :  '  How  ?  by  our  innate  inhorn 
gumption.''  In  these  amicable  conflicts  with  his 
pupil,  he  never  took  unfair  advantage  or  con- 
tended for  victory.  On  the  contrary,  he  seemed 
desirous,  as  he  really  was,  to  do  full  justice  to 
every  objection,  and  in  alluding  to  writers  who 
differed  from  him,  to  speak  of  them  with  per- 
sonal respect." 

Dr.  Wayland  carried  the  function  of  the 
teacher  beyond  the  mere  mental  discipline  of 
studies  pursued.  The  preparation  of  his  pupils 
for  actual  life  measured  for  him  his  responsibility 
as  a  teacher.  He  brought,  perhaps,  less  of  learn- 
ing to  the  class-room  than  some  of  his  contem- 
poraries. He  was  never  spoken  of  as  a  learned 
man  in  philosophy,  or  ethics,  or  political  econ- 
omy. He  had  mastered  the  essential  principles 
in  all  these  departments  of  knowledge,  and  was 
abundantly  equipped  for  teaching  them.  But 
his  class-room  was  made  the  place  where  con- 


DR.  WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         191 

stant  lessons  were  given  on  the  conduct  of  life, 
which,  unlike  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  he  made  the 
whole  and  not  a  fraction  of  it.  On  this  point, 
President  Angell,  of  Michigan  University,  him- 
self an  accomplished  and  eminent  educator,  has 
spoken  with  equal  force  and  beauty.  ^  "  But 
extraordinary  as  were  Dr.  Wayland's  mental  en- 
dowments, his  greatness  and  his  influence  were 
more  conspicuously  moral  than  intellectual.  His 
imperial  will,  his  ardent  love  of  the  simple 
truth,  his  tender  sympathy  for  the  oppressed  and 
the  suffering,  his  generosity  to  the  poor,  his  un- 
conquerable love  of  soul  liberty,  his  hatred  of 
spiritual  despotisms,  his  unflinching  devotion  to 
duty,  his  sublime  unselfishness,  his  spirit  of  un- 
questioning filial  obedience  to  God,  his  abiding 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,  these 
were  the  great  elements  of  his  character,  the  im- 
pelling forces  of  that  splendid  intellect,  and  the 
sources  of  his  mighty  power.  He  believed  with 
all  his  soul  that  life  is  made  up  of  duties,  duties 
to  man  and  to  God.  This  idea  he  was  ever  hold- 
ing up  in  all  possible  lights,  and  impressing  on 
his  hearers  with  all  his  power.  It  lent  shape 
and  coloring  to  all  his  instructions  as  professor, 
and  to  all  his  acts  as  president,  lifted  the  col- 
lege to  a  lofty  plane,  and  gave  earnestness  and 
purpose  to  the  lives  of  his  pupils.  ...  As  his 
^  Hours  at  Home,  December,  1865.    Article  on  Dr.  Wayland. 


192  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

moral  power  predominated  over  his  intellectual, 
he  was  more  successful  both  in  investigating  and 
in  teaching  moral  than  intellectual  philosophy. 
The  laws  of  conscience,  the  heinousness  and  the 
fatal  results  of  sin,  the  unchangeableness  of  the 
divine  laws,  the  immutableness  of  right,  the 
power  of  habit,  the  right  of  every  man  to  him- 
self and  the  consequent  wrong  of  human  slavery, 
the  paramount  duty  of  every  man  to  develop  his 
faculties  to  the  utmost,  and  to  live  to  the  glory 
of  God,  these  and  kindred  topics  were  discussed 
with  such  clearness  and  force,  and  illustrated  so 
variously  and  so  aptly,  that  we  believe  it  to  be 
literally  true  that  no  student,  however  thought- 
less, ever  pursued  the  study  of  moral  philosophy 
under  Dr.  Wayland,  without  receiving  positive 
moral  impressions  which  remained  through  life. 
You  can  hardly  find  one  of  his  pupils  who  can- 
not repeat  memorable  utterances  of  the  teacher, 
which  have  been  to  him  maxims  throughout  his 
career." 

What,  indeed,  to  many  of  his  pupils  seemed 
the  crowning  excellence  of  his  teaching  was  the 
love  of  truth:  to  get  at  the  truth  upon  every 
subject,  to  live  in  contact  with  the  truth.  He 
had  no  great  reverence  for  elaborate  systems  of 
philosophy  or  of  divinity.  He  never  openly  or 
flippantly  disparaged  these  monumental  struc- 
tures of  human  thought.     But  he  held  himself 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         193 

in  entire  independence  of  them,  it  were,  perhaps, 
more  truthful  to  say,  too  much  aloof  from  them. 
"  Young  gentlemen,  cherish  your  own  concep- 
tions," were  his  words  to  one  of  his  classes.  A 
friend  who  was  about  to  take  charge  of  a  Bible 
class  asked  him  what  commentary  he  would  rec- 
ommend him  to  use.  "  Your  own  eyes,  if  you 
can  see,"  was  the  characteristic  reply .^  Mental 
independence  was,  in  his  view,  a  cardinal  virtue. 
He  abhorred  everything  like  slavery.  Mental 
bondage  seemed  to  him  the  direct  result  of  too 
great  deference  to  the  fathers,  to  the  school-men, 
to  the  great  system-makers  in  philosophy  and 
theology.  His  pupils  felt  this.  He  held  them 
largely  by  this  fearless  independence  of  mind. 
Coupling  with  this  freedom  from  all  partisan- 
ship his  simple,  eager  seeking  for  the  truth,  we 
see  how  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than  that  he 
should  inspire  his  pupils  with  the  same  inde- 
pendence of  mind.  When  he  did  not,  it  was 
because  some  of  them  were  hopelessly  environed 
by  partisan  associations,  or  made  with  minds  too 
narrow  to  take  in  more  than  adhesion  to  a  party 
or  a  sect. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Dr.  Wayland  as  an 
educator,  that  he  believed  it  essential  to  the 
highest  and  most  enduring  efficiency  of  a  college 
presidency  that  the  president  should  be  himself 

^  Hours  at  Home,  vol.  ii.  p.  193. 


194  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

a  teacher,  and  thus  come  into  direct  contact  with 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  college.  It  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  "  the  academic  spirit  may  and 
should  be  in  living  sympathy  with  the  struggles 
which  are  going  forward  on  the  public  arena. 
.  .  .  The  true  academic  spirit  does  not  live  in 
the  air.  It  does  not  abide  in  a  region  aloof  from 
the  concerns  of  mankind  in  the  day  that  now 
is."  ^  Like  President  Woolsey,  in  regard  to 
whose  academic  career  these  words  were  written, 
Dr.  Wayland  had  labored  steadily  and  success- 
fully to  make  the  academic  spirit  in  his  college 
in  the  best  sense  a  public  spirit.  But  he  held 
just  as  firmly  the  position  that,  as  the  head  of  a 
college  or  university,  he  must  come  into  direct 
relations  with  students  as  a  teacher ;  that  the 
office  of  president  could  not  be  sunk  in  merely 
executive  administration ;  that  all  the  dignity 
and  sacred  responsibility  of  the  official  robe 
should  invest  the  higher  office  and  functions  of 
the  teacher;  that  so  only  could  the  academic 
spirit  be  fully  developed  and  maintained.  In 
these  views,  and  as  an  illustrious  example  of 
them,  he  was  in  close  accord  with  President 
Woolsey.  ^     He   might  possibly  have  conceded 

1  Article  on  President  Woolsey  by   Professor  George  P. 
Fisher,  in  the  Century  Magazine,  vol.  ii.,  New  Series,  p.  217. 

2  Vide  Professor  Fisher's  article  in  Century  Magazine,  pas- 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  EDUCATOR.         195 

that  there  were  exigencies  in  the  history  of  col- 
legiate institutions,  when  the  president  could 
best  serve  their  interests  by  exalting  the  mere 
executive  and  becoming  less  the  intellectual  head. 
But  he  would  certainly  have  maintained  that,  if 
the  office  of  president  were,  from  any  undue  re- 
liance on  mere  executive  ability,  permanently 
divorced  from  the  office  of  teacher,  the  result 
in  the  long  run  and  on  the  broad  scale  would  be 
not  only  decline  in  the  high  position  of  dignity 
and  influence  which  seem  essential  to  the  office, 
but  there  would  be  decline  also  in  the  academic 
spirit  of  the  institution. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DR.  WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR. 

The  authorship  of  Dr.  Wayland,  in  any  ex- 
tended sense,  began  with  the  publication  of  his 
"  Moral  Science,"  in  1835.  It  was  constructed 
designedly  as  a  text-book.  Ordinarily  text-books, 
as  fruits  of  authorship,  would  demand  slight  no- 
tice. They  are  made,  serve  a  period  of  useful- 
ness longer  or  shorter,  and  are  superseded  by 
other  and  later  studies  of  the  subject.  Two,  how- 
ever, of  Dr.  Wayland's  text-books  cannot  be  so 
summarily  dismissed.  His  "  Moral  Science " 
has  had  a  history,  unique  in  that  of  text-books, 
not  only  nor  mainly  in  its  wide  and  pi-olonged 
use,  but  in  the  educational  work  it  accomplished, 
a  work,  as  we  shall  see,  affecting  most  deeply 
opinion  on  a  great  national  question. 

The  book  itself,  like  all  books  of  worth,  was  a 
growth  of  years.  In  the  Preface  of  the  first  edi- 
tion its  history  is  thus  given  :  "  When  it  became 
my  duty  to  instruct  in  Moral  Philosophy,  in 
Brown  University,  the  text-book  in  use  was  the 
work  of  Dr.  Paley.     From  many  of  his  princi- 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  197 

pies  I  found  myself  compelled  to  dissent,  and  at 
first  I  contented  myself  with  stating  to  my 
classes  my  objections  to  the  author,  and  offering 
my  views  in  the  form  of  familiar  conversations 
upon  several  of  the  topics  which  he  discusses. 

"  These  views,  for  my  own  convenience,  I  soon 
committed  to  paper  and  delivered  in  the  form  of 
lectures.  In  a  few  years  these  lectures  had  be- 
come so  far  extended  that  to  my  surprise,  they 
contained  by  themselves  the  elements  of  a  differ- 
ent system  from  that  of  the  text-book  which  I 
was  teaching.  To  avoid  the  inconvenience  of 
teaching  two  different  systems,  I  undertook  to 
reduce  them  to  order,  and  to  make  such  addi- 
tions as  would  render  the  work  in  some  measure 
complete  within  itself.  I  thus  relinquished  the 
work  of  Dr.  Paley,  and  for  some  time  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  instructing  by  lectures.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  attempt  exceeded  my  expectations, 
and  encouraged  me  to  hope  that  the  publication 
of  what  I  had  delivered  to  my  classes  might  in 
some  small  degree  facilitate  the  study  of  Moral 
Science."  |He  expressly  acknowledged  his  obli-1 
gation  to  Bishop  Butler,  especially  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Couscience,j  the  study  of  whose  sermons 
on  Human  Nature  had  first  turned  his  attention 
to  the  subject.  How  deeply  he  felt  the  impor- 
tance of  the  work  he  was  undertaking  is  seen 
from  the  notice  of  it  in  his  diary,  December  22, 
1833. 


198  FBANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

"  I  have  thought  of  publishing  a  work  on 
moral  philosophy. 

"  Direct  me,  O  thou  all-wise  and  Pure  Spirit. 
Let  me  not  do  it  unless  it  be  for  thy  glory  and 
the  good  of  men.  If  I  should  do  it,  may  it  all 
be  true  so  far  as  human  knowledge  at  present 
extends.  Enlighten,  guide,  and  teach  me  so  that 
I  may  write  something  which  shall  show  thy  jus- 
tice now  more  clearly  than  heretofore,  and  the 
necessity  and  excellency  of  the  plan  of  salvation 
by  Christ  Jesus,  the  blessed  Kedeemer.  All 
which  I  ask  through  his  merits  alone.     Amen." 

And  on  June  6,  1835,  after  the  publication  of 
his  "  Moral  Science,"  the  diary  records  another 
prayer,  consecrating  it  to  the  "  cause  of  truth,  of 
peace,  and  of  righteousness."  The  work  was  pub- 
lished in  May,  1835.  Its  success  is  a  matter  of 
history.  Jurists  like  Chancellor  Kent  gave  it 
their  strongest  commendation.  It  was  republished 
in  England  and  Scotland.  It  was  destined  to  ser- 
vice on  missionary  fields.  Translated  into  Hawai- 
ian, a  missionary  wrote  him  from  Honolulu, 
Sandwich  Islands,  "  I  am  now  going  through  it 
with  a  class  of  fifty  adults,  including  the  gover- 
nor of  the  island  of  Oahu  and  his  principal  mag- 
istrates. The  subject  of  Conscience  is  new  to 
them  and  deeply  interesting.  They  have  no  word 
for  it  in  their  language,  but  they  readily  per- 
ceive that  there  is  such  a  faculty,  and  they  are 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  199 

delighted  with  the  discovery."  It  was  transla- 
ted also  into  Armenian  by  Dr.  Cyrus  Hamlin, 
who  wrote  the  author  that  "  he  had  thus  become 
a  co-laborer  in  the  great  work  of  regenerating 
the  East."  The  missionaries  of  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Union  made  a  similar  version  in  Modern 
Greek,  and  it  appears  that  a  translation  in  the 
Nestorian  language  was  made  by  the  missiona- 
ries among  the  Nestorians.  There  was  abundant 
reason  for  such  a  success.  The  work  supplanted 
Paley,  and  deservedly  so  on  more  grounds  than 
one.  The  author  calls  it  Moral  Science,  and 
whatever  may  be  said  now  of  some  of  its  ethical 
positions,  and  however  it  may  have  been  super- 
seded by  later  teachings,  it  merits  this  claim  to 
scientific  treatment,  eminently  so  as  compared 
with  Paley 's  book.  Its  division  of  the  subject 
into  the  two  great  departments  of  theoretical 
ethics  and  practical  ethics,  its  lengthened  discus- 
sion of  foundation  principles  in  the  opening  chap- 
ters, the  orderly  development  of  the  whole,  its 
definitions,  its  concise  discussions,  all  combine  to 
make  its  excellence  as  a  Moral  Science,  'Among 
treatises  in  this  country,  it  m^j  be  justly  re- 
garded as  the  pioneer  in  scientific  treatment  of 
ethical  principles  and  applications. } 

It  was  a  still  greater  service  rendered  by  the 
publication  of  his  "Moral  Science"  that  it  sup- 
planted Paley's  unsound  system  of  ethics  by  an 


200  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

essentially  sound  one.  ^  Paley's  "  Moral  Philoso- 
phy "  was  then  in  general  use  as  a  text-book  on 
ethics.  His  well-known  definition  of  virtue  ^  and 
its  accompanying  exposition ;  his  subsequent 
statements  making  a  utilitarian  basis  for  right,^ 
were  repudiated  by  Dr.  Wayland,  and  the  doc- 
trine that  "  the  moral  quality  of  an  action  resides 
in  the  intention "  was  substituted  for  Paley's 
theory.  Dr.  Wayland,  like  Dr.  Paley,  makes  the 
ultimate  foundation  of  virtue  to  be  the  will  of 
God,  a  view  not  held  by  later  writers.  In  fact, 
it  was  his  discussion  of  practical  ethics  which 
was  most  to  be  praised.  It  has  been  claimed  for 
Dr.  Paley  that  his  form  of  the  utilitarian  theory 
has  been  misapprehended.  Dr.  James  Martineau 
has  endeavored  to  remove  this  misapprehension 
in  his  "  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,"  ^  and  a  writer 

1  "  Virtue  is  the  doing  good  to  mankind  in  obedience  to  the 
will  of  God,  and  for  the  sake  of  everlasting  happiness.  Ac- 
cording to  which  definition,  '  the  good  of  mankind  '  is  the 
subject,  the  '  will  of  God  '  the  rule,  and  '  everlasting  happi- 
ness '  the  motive  of  human  virtue.' '  —  Paley's  Moral  Philoso- 
phy, Book  I.,  Chapter  VIII. 

2  "So  the  actions  are  to  be  estimated  by  their  tendency  ? 
Whatever  is  expedient  is  right.  It  is  the  utility  of  any  moral 
rule  alone  which  constitutes  the  obligation  of  it ; "  and  in  refer- 
ence to  certain  bad  actions  apparently  accomplishing  useful 
ends,  "These  actions  after  all  are  not  useful,  and  for  that  rea- 
son, and  that  alone,  are  not  right."  —  Moral  Philosophy,  Book 
II.,  Chapter  VI. 

*  "By  Paley,  for  example,  this  feature  {i.  e.  the  conduciveness 
of  virtue  to  the  happiness  of  men)  is  taken  not  as  in  itself  con- 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  201 

in  the  "  Quarterly  Review  "  ^  has  explained  away 
Paley's  statements  that  *'  it  is  the  utility  of  any 
moral  rule  alone  which  constitues  the  obligation 
of  it,"  as  "  the  inadvertent  expressions  of  a  man 
enamored  of  his  system."  However  this  may  be, 
it  is  plain  tha^Dr.  Way  land's  "  Moral  Science,'*^ 
as  a  system  of  Christian  Ethics,  rested  on  aj 
sounder  and  more  logical  basis,  and  supplanting! 
Paley's,  as  it  seems  to  have  done  in  many  of  our 
educational  institutions,  it  rendered  an  inesti- 
mable service  to  the  cause  of  public  and  privatei 
morality. 

The  "  Moral  Science  "  rendered  another,  and^ 
in  its  possible  results  an  equally  great,  service  / 
to  public  morals.     When  the  author  came  to  I 
treat  the  topic  of  "  personal  liberty  "  ^  he  faced  j 
squarely  the  subject  of  American  slavery.    After^* 
having  discussed  the  general  question,  and  hav- 
ing reached  the  conclusion  that  "  the  precepts  of 
the  gospel  in  no  manner  countenance,  but  are 
directly  opposed  to,  the  institution  of  domestic 
slavery,"  ^  he  asks  the  question,  "  What  is  the 
duty  of  masters  and  slaves  under  a  condition  of 
society  in  which  slavery  now  exists  ?  "  and  gives 

stituting  right,  but  as  the  mark,  when  Revelation  is  silent,  the 
external  index  of  the  Will  of  God."  —  Types  of  Ethical  Theory^ 
vol.  ii.  p.  218. 

1  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xx^ii.  p.  320. 

2  Mm-al  Science,  p.  200. 
8  Ibid.  p.  214. 


202  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

the  following  answer :  "  If  the  system  be  wrong, 
as  we  have  endeavored  to  show,  if  it  be  at  vari- 
ance with  our  duty  both  to  God  and  to  men,  it 
must  be  abandoned.  If  it  be  asked,  When  ?  I 
ask  again.  When  shall  a  man  begin  to  cease  do- 
ing wrong  ?  Is  not  the  answer  always,  Immedi- 
ately ?  "  ^  He  then  considers  the  objection  that 
"  immediate  abolition "  would  be  the  greatest 
possible  injury  to  the  slaves  themselves,  and 
meets  it  by  assuming  for  the  sake  of  the  argu- 
ment that  this  is  the  case :  — 

1.  "  The  situation  of  the  slaves,  in  which  this 
obstacle  to  their  emancipation  exists,  is  not  by 
their  own  acU  but  by  the  act  of  their  masters ; 
and,  therefore,  the  masters  are  hound  to  remove 
it." 

2.  Assuming  that  the  slaves  must  be  held  in 
bondage  until  the  object  be  accomplished,  then 
"  it  may  be  the  duty  of  the  master  to  hold  the 
slave  ;  not,  however,  on  the  ground  of  right  over 
him^  but  of  obligation  to  him^  and  of  obligation 
to  him  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  a  par- 
ticular and  specified  good.''''  ^  And  the  whole  dis- 
cussion ends  with  the  following  impressive  and, 
in  one  sentence,  prophetic  words :  "  Hence,  if 
any  one  will  reflect  on  these  facts,  and  remember 
the  moral  law  of  the  Creator,  and  the  terrible 
sanctions  by  which  his  laws  are  sustained,  and 

1  Moral  Science,  p.  214.  2  jfjij.  p.  215. 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  203 

also  the  provision  which,  in  the  gospel  of  recon- 
ciliation, He  lias  made  for  removing  this  evil  af- 
ter it  has  been  once  established,  he  must,  I  think, 
be  convinced  of  the  imperative  obligation  which 
rests  upon  him  to  remove  it  without  the  delay  of 
a  moment.  The  Judge  of  the  whole  earth  will 
do  justice.  He  hears  the  crj''  of  the  oppressed, 
and    He   will    in    the    end    terribly   vindicate 

These  views  were,  it  must  be  remembered,  ' 
put  forth  in  1835.  They  were  in  a  text-book, 
which  went  at  once  into  very  wide  circulation. 
The  Northern  pulpit,  with  few  exceptions,  was 
then  silent  on  the  subject  of  slavery^  The  press 
was  not  discussing  the  question  in  its  political 
relations  to  any  great  extent.  Dr.  Wayland's 
"  Moral  Science  "  educated  the  generation  which 
came  to  its  manhood  in  the  beginning  of  the 
great  anti-slavery  struggle.  It  was  a  prime 
agent  in  the  formation  of  that  Northern  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  which,  twenty-five  years  later, 
was  driven  to  its  final  and  triumphant  appeal  to 
the  arbitrament  of  bloody  war.  What  could 
have  been  more  potent  in  forming  a  right  public 
sentiment,  than  a  text-book  tea^jhing  such  doc- 
trines of  personal  liberty,  which  in  both  editions, 
abridged  and  unabridged,  had  reached  in  the 
year  1868  a  circulation  of  one  hundred  and  thir- 
^  Moral  Science,  p.  216. 


204  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

ty- seven  thousand  copies?/  The  experience  of 
the  nation  in  the  necessary  appeal  to  arms  for 
the  preservation  of  the  national  life  caused  Dr. 
Wayland  to  modify  some  of  his  opinions  as  to 
the  lawfulness  of  war.  He  was  at  the  outset  as 
pronounced  in  his  condemnation  of  war  as  of 
slavery.  Hon.  E.  L.  Pierce  has  called  attention 
to  this  in  his  "  Life  of  Charles  Sumner."  ^ 

Of  all  the  subjects  which  Dr.  Wayland  taught 
during  his  presidency,  Ethics,  Political  Econ- 
omy, Intellectual  Philosophy,  and  the  Evidences 
of  Christianity,  the  first  was  that  with  which  he 
was  best  fitted  to  deal.  It  was  thoroughly  con- 
genial to  him.  The  structure  of  his  mind  was 
shown  in  his  ready  grasp  of  moral  distinctions 
and  his  skillful  application  of  them  to  the 
affairs  of  life.     Not  only  was  he  best  fitted  to 

^  "The  change  of  opinion  among  divines  and  moralists  is 
well  shown  by  comjjaring  the  editions  of  Wayland' s  Moral 
Science.  In  all  but  the  last  there  is  a  chapter  earnestly  set- 
ting forth  the  moral  and  religious  argument  against  war,  and 
coming  to  the  conclusion  that  '  hence  it  would  seem  that  all 
wars  are  contrary  to  the  revealed  will  of  God,  and  that  the 
individual  has  no  right  to  commit  to  society,  nor  society  to 
commit  to  government,  the  power  to  declare  war.'  But  in  the 
last  edition,  published  in  1865,  just  after  the  suppression  of 
the  Rebellion,  and  completed  one  month  preceding  his  death, 
the  author  substituted  a  much  briefer  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  maintained,  contrary  to  the  view  his  treatise  had 
taught  for  thirty  years,  the  duty,  in  extreme  cases,  of  national 
aggression  to  repel  force  by  force."  —  Pierce's  Life  of  Sumner, 
vol.  ii.  p.  380,  note. 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  205 

expound  practical  ethics,  but,  as  a  consequence, 
it  was  in  this  field  that  he  secured  so  wonderful 
a  hold  on  his  pupils.  Those  hours  in  the  Moral 
Science  class-room  were  never  and  could  be 
never  forgotten.  His  students  felt  the  imperial 
power  of  his  sturdy  moral  nature  re  en  forcing 
the  solid,  clear  conclusions  of  his  reasoning,  and 
by  common  consent  regarded  "  Moral  Science," 
as  taught  by  him,  the  crowning  and  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  the  college  course.  Explanation 
of  this  might  be  readily  found  in  the  text-book 
itself.  As  one  turns  its  pages  and  reads  its 
chapters  even  now,  there  is  a  distinct  if  unde- 
finable  impression  of  deep  sincerity  and  massive 
strength  in  all  its  sentences.  Superseded  doubt- 
less it  may  and  will  be.  As  a  text-book,  it  is 
open  to  criticism.  But  it  is  living  yet,  and  doing 
still  its  work  of  educating  the  moral  sense  of 
many  an  American  youth. 

There  is  evidence  too  that  it  was  read  by  a  1 
public  outside  college  or  academy  walls.  It 
touched  on  and  handled  questions  which  were  in 
the  air  of  the  time.  It  was  singularly  free 
from  scholastic  subtleties.  It  was  the  "  com- 
mon-sense "  philosophy  applied  to  ethics,  on 
that  account  unsatisfactory  to  some,  but  on 
that  very  account  liked  by  the  common  under-\ 
standing.  An  instance  illustrating  this  is  given 
in  the  following  letter  from  Dr.  A.  A.  Liver- 
more  :  — 


V 


206  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

Wilton,  N.  H.,  August  12,  1890. 

Dear  Sir,  —  Yours  received.  In  reply  I 
would  say  that  the  incident  to  which  you  refer 
is  a  fact,  which  I  have  heard  related  by  the  per- 
son himself. 

It  was  Rev.  Mordecai  De  Lange,  a  Jew,  who 
was  converted  to  Christianity  by  the  perusal  of 
Dr.  Wayland's  "  Moral  Science."  He  was  a 
young  man,  resident  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  engaged 
in  business.  One  day  at  his  boarding-house, 
while  waiting  dinner,  he  casually  took  up  this 
book,  and  read  a  chapter  on  Conscience,  and  it 
awakened  a  train  of  thought  which  led  him  to 
renounce  Judaism,  and  to  accept  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  I  forget  the  precise  mental  process 
through  which  his  mind  passed  in  arriving  at 
this  conclusion,  suffice  it  to  say,  Wayland's 
"  Moral  Science  "  furnished  the  seed  germ. 

Subsequently,  Mr.  De  Lange  became  a  Uni- 
tarian under  the  preaching  of  Kev.  Dr.  William 
G.  Eliot  of  St.  Louis,  and  he  became  also  a 
minister.  He  was  first  settled  as  a  minister  at 
large  in  Dr.  Eliot's  church,  was  then  chaplain  of 
the  Missouri  State  Prison,  afterwards  the  pastor 
of  the  Unitarian  church  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  and 
when  he  died,  some  years  ago,  he  was  custodian 
of  the  Meadville,  Pa.,  Theological  School. 
Yours  truly, 

A.  A.  LiVERMORE. 


DR,   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  207 

In  1837,  two  years  after  the  publication  of 
his  "  Moral  Science,"  his  "  Elements  of  Politi- 
cal Economy"  was  issued.  Say's  "Political 
Economy  "  had  been  published  in  this  country 
with  notes  by  C.  C.  Biddle  in  1824.  The 
manuals  of  Cooper  and  Phillips  had  appeared 
in  1826  or  1828 ;  Say's  "  New  Principles  of 
Political  Economy"  in  1834.  Besides  these 
there  were  the  well-known  and  standard  treatises 
of  Adam  Smith,  Ricardo,  Malthus,  Mill,  and 
Whately.  It  was  the  aioi  of  Dr.  Wayland  to  sim- 
plify the  science.  He  said  in  the  preface  that  "  the 
works  on  this  subject  in  general  use,  while  they 
presented  its  doctrines  truty,  did  not  present 
them  in  such  order  as  would  be  most  likely  to 
render  them  serviceable  either  to  the  general 
reader  or  to  the  practical  merchant."  Struck 
by  the  simplicity  of  the  principles  of  this  sci- 
ence, the  extent  of  its  generalizations,  and  the 
readiness  with  which  its  facts  seemed  capable  of 
being  brought  into  natural  and  methodical  ar- 
rangement, he  constructed  his  work  so  as  to  pre- 
sent the  subject  in  the  plainest  manner  possible. 
It  is  thus  divested  of  all  show  of  learning  and 
all  pretense  to  profoundly  philosophical  treat- 
ment. In  a  word,  it  is  a  book  for  laymen  and 
for  beginners.  This  is  aU  it  aimed  to  be.  How 
well  it  met  this  want  is  seen  from  the  fact  that 
after  fifty  years  have  passed  it  is  still  in  use. 


208  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

Twenty  years  ago  it  had  reached  a  circulation 
of  fifty  thousand  copies  for  the  larger  treatise, 
and  for  the  abridgment,  twelve  thousand.  Dr. 
Wayland's  interest  in  this  study  was  far  deeper 
than  a  merely  professional  one.  In  his  view  it 
affected  the  higher  interests  of  the  peoj)le.  It 
crossed  the  boundary  which  separates  the  ma- 
terial from  the  moral  welfare  of  society.  In  a 
letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Anderson,  Secretary  of 
the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  he 
expressed  the  opinion  that  "  scarcely  anything 
would  be  more  calculated  to  arouse  and  stimu- 
late the  minds  of  persons  emerging  from  barba- 
rism than  the  study  of  the  elements  of  this  sci- 
ence." A  passion  for  human  welfare  was  a  lead- 
ing characteristic  in  his  moral  nature,  and  hence 
he  wrote  with  the  conviction  that  the  two  sub- 
jects of  Moral  Science  and  Political  Economy 
were  cognate,  capable  of  clear  division  each  from 
the  other,  but  that  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  one  were  involved  in  the  principles  of  the 
other.  In  the  publication  of  his  "  Political  Econ- 
omy "  we  have  also  an  illustration  of  a  marked 
trait  in  the  man.  He  had  the  courage  of  his 
opinions.  In  a  community,  the  interests  of  which 
were  bound  up  in  manufactures,  he  was  the  out- 
spoken advocate  of  Free  Trade.  And  in  the 
opinion  of  not  a  few,  had  Dr.  Wayland  given 
time  to  full  research  on  the  subject  instead   of 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  209 

contenting  himself  with  a  rudimental  treatise, 
he  would  have  proved  himself  a  leading  author- 
ity on  questions  of  Political  Economy. 

In  the  spring  of  1838^)  he  published  his 
"  Limitations  of  Human  Eesponsibility,"  a  small 
volume  of  two  hundred  pages,  described  in  his 
dedication  to  Dr.  Daniel  Sharp  as  a  "  little 
essay."  Nothing  that  he  ever  wrote  was  the 
subject  of  more  animadversion  at  home  and 
abroad.  From  some  of  its  positions  he  himself 
at  a  later  date  receded.  It  was  called  forth  by 
what  he  considered  were  wrong  methods  of  con- 
ducting reforms  desirable  in  themselves.  The 
two  reforms  then  rising  into  prominence  and  rap- 
idly becoming  "  burning  questions  "  were  Tem- 
perance and  Antislavery.  No  man  held  more 
stoutly,  or  pushed  to  closer  application,  the  doc- 
trine of  individual  responsibility  than  did  he. 
To  this  position  he  arrived  in  great  part  by  his 
Baptist  training,  but  in  great  part  also  by  his 
own  thinking.  It  seemed  to  him  that  a  just 
view  of  individual  responsibility  was  endangered 
on  the  one  hand  by  merging  the  moral  individu- 
alism in  voluntary  association,  and  on  the  other 
by  pressing  individual  responsibility  beyond  its 
proper  ethical  limits.  Hence  the  title  of  the 
little  treatise,  "  Limitations  of  Human  Respon- 
sibility." He  was  well  aware  that  no  subject 
in  the  wide  field  of  casuistry  offered  more  dif- 


210  FRANCIS  WAYLAND, 

ficulties  in  the  way  of  clear  exposition,  and  he 
began  his  discussion  by  considering  in  the  open- 
ing chapters  the  nature  of  the  subject,  and  by 
defining  the  limits  of  individual  responsibility. 
He  held  in  general  that  men  are  not  responsi- 
ble for  the  accomplishment  of  any  good  if  it  be 
out  of  their  power,  whether  it  be  beyond  the 
limit  of  ability  they  possess,  or  whether  it  re- 
quires a  kind  of  ability  not  at  their  command. 
He  maintained  also  that,  supposing  the  accom- 
plishment of  any  good  be  within  the  power,  it 
does  not  follow  by  necessity  that  this  simple  fact 
carries  with  it  a  responsibility  for  its  perform- 
ance. He  then  enumerates  and  discusses  five 
different  limitations  of  individual  responsibility. 
He  expressly  disclaims  having  enumerated  all 
the  cases  in  which  our  responsibility  for  the  per- 
formance of  general  duties  is  limited,  and  then 
proceeds  to  apply  the  principles  laid  down,  to 
such  cases  as  persecution  for  religious  opinions^ 
the  propagation  of  truths  voluntary  associations, 
ecclesiastical  associations,  official  responsibility, 
and  finally  the  slavery  question.  His  discus- 
sion of  the  subject  of  Voluntary  Associations 
brought  out  his  views  of  temperance  pledges. 
He  questioned  their  general  utility  as  then  urged 
by  temperance  reformers,  not  only  on  the  most 
stringent  grounds  of  moral  obligations,  but  of- 
ten in  a  spirit  of  intolerance  and  uncharitable- 


DR.   WA  YLAND  AS  AN  A  UTHOR.  211 

uess.^  He  combated  the  riglit  of  churches  to 
lay  down  tests  for  church  membership  not  pre- 
scribed in  the  New  Testament.  In  a  word,  he 
deprecated  the  tendency  to  sink  the  individual 
in  a  corporate  conscience  of  any  sort. 

In  his  discussion  of  "  Official  Responsibility  " 
he  announced  with  clearness  and  emphasis  all 
the  underlying  principles  of  modern  civil  ser- 
vice reform.  He  lifted  a  solemn  and  pregnant 
warning  against  the  demoralizing  effect  which 
must  be  produced  in  any  community  where 
elections  are  so  frequent,  by  holding  up  before 
voters  the  motives  of  sordid  self-interest  in  the 
place  of  the  proper  motives  which  should  influ- 
ence every  citizen.  The  standard  of  public  vir- 
tue is  thus  depressed,  and  a  base  subserviency 
to  popular  clamor  is  engendered,  of  which  a  free 
people  would  do  well  to  be  deeply  ashamed. 

His  treatment  of  the  slavery  question,  in  the 
closing  section  of  the  book,  was  a  surprise  and  a 
disappointment  to  the  best  antislavery  sentiment 
of  the  North.  He  took  the  ground  that  Con- 
gress had  the  right  to  abolish  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  only  when,  first,  the  South- 
ern States  agree  to  its  abolition,  or,  secondly, 
whenever  Maryland  and  Virginia,  or  either  of 
them,  shall  abolish  it  in  their  own  domain. 

This  would  give  the'  Southern  States  the  con- 
1  Section  VI.  pp.  104-107 


212  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

trolling  power  in  the  decision  of  the  question. 
He  argued  for  this  view  from  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  Southern  States.  Thus  quoting 
the  Constitution,  he  said :  "•  This  instrument  has 
not  merely  a  positive^  it  has  also  a  negative 
power.  It  not  only  grants  certain  powers,  but 
it  expressly  declares  that  those  not  enumerated 
are  not  granted.  Thus,  it  enacts  that  all  '  The 
powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the 
Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States,  respectively,  or  to  the 
people.'  Now,  the  abolition  of  slavery  being  a 
power  not  conferred,  it  is,  by  this  article,  ex- 
pressly withheld.  Whatever  power  we  may 
therefore  have  over  slavery,  as  citizens  of  the 
several  States,  within  our  own  limits,  respect- 
ively, we  have  none,  as  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  The  majority  of  the  people  in  the 
United  States  have,  in  this  respect,  no  power 
over  the  minority ;  for  the  minority  has  never 
conceded  to  them  this  power.  Should  all  the 
States  in  the  Union  but  one,  and  that  one  the 
very  smallest,  abolish  slavery,  should  the  major- 
ity of  one  hundred  to  one  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  be  in  favor  of  its  abolition,  still  it 
would  not  alter  the  case.  That  one  State  would 
be  as  free  to  abolish  it  or  not  to  abolish  it,  as  it 
is  now.  This  is  a  question  which  has  never  been 
submitted  to  the  majority  of  the  citizens  of  these 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  213 

United  States,  and  therefore  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  as  citizens,  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it." 

His  position  on  the  question  of  abolishing 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  not  long 
held  by  him.  He  had  mistaken  the  temper  of 
the  South.  The  tone  was  rapidly  changing  from 
that  of  apology  to  that  of  aggression.  He  came 
in  a  few  years  to  see  that  the  propagandists  of 
slavery  as  an  institution,  who  subsequently  ma- 
terialized their  plans  in  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
far  outnumbered  a  small  body  of  excellent 
Southern  people  who  pleaded  for  its  toleration 
and  talked  of  gradual  emancipation.^  This 
change  of  view  is  alluded  to  in  a  letter  from 
Charles  Sumner  to  Dr.  Channing,^  dated  June 
23,  1842. 

"  I  was  in  Providence  yesterday,  where  I  saw 
President  Way  land.  He  wished  me  to  say  to 
you  that  he  had  read  both  parts  ^  with  great 
pleasure,  and  that  he  agreed  with  you  entirely. 
His  views  on  slavery,  and  with  regard  to  the 
South,  have  materially  changed  lately." 

In  the  autumn  of  1852,  at  the  request  of  the 

1  Wilson's  Bise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power^  vol.  i.  pp. 
189-207. 

2  Pierce's  Life  of  Sumner,  vol.  ii.  p.  211. 

2  Alluding  to  Dr.  Ghanning's  pamphlet  on  the  Duty  of  the 
Free  States. 


214  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

Executive  Committee  o£  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Union,  and  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of 
Mrs.  Emily  C.  Judson,  Dr.  Wayland  undertook 
the  biography  of  Dr.  Adoniram  Judson.  It  was 
altogether  fitting  that  he,  the  foremost  of  Bap- 
tist scholars  and  divines  in  America,  should 
write  the  life  of  the  foremost  American  Baptist 
missionary.  From  the  date  of  his  sermon  on 
the  "  Moral  Dignity  of  the  Missionary  Enter- 
prise," the  subject  of  foreign  missions  had  occu- 
pied his  mind.  He  was  well  versed  in  their 
progress,  had  thought  long  and  deeply  on  their 
true  method.  In  the  career  of  Dr.  Judson  he 
had  cherished  a  special  interest.  The  celebrated 
missionary  on  the  visit  to  America  in  1845  had 
been  his  guest,  and  they  had  communed  freely 
concerning  the  great  subject  of  missions. 

He  undertook  the  work  from  the  highest  mo- 
tive, that  of  service  to  the  common  Master,  but 
with  a  motive  of  generosity  also,  for  he  presented 
the  copyright  to  Dr.  Judson's  family,  after  pay- 
ing all  the  incidental  expenses  of  preparing  the 
book.  Grave  difficulties  beset  him  at  the  outset, 
thus  stated  in  the  Preface  :  "  From  peculiar 
views  of  duty,  Dr.  «Tudson.  had  caused  to  be 
destroyed  all  his  early  letters  written  to  his  fam- 
ily, together  with  all  his  papers  of  a  personal 
character.  Mrs.  Ann  H.  Judson,  from  pruden- 
tial reasons,  during  their  captivity  in  Ava,  de- 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS   AN  AUTHOR.  215 

stroyed  all  his  letters  in  hei-  possession.  Manu- 
scripts were  also  consumed  by  the  burning  of 
Mr.  Stevens's  house  in  Maulmain.  Dr.  Jud- 
son's  correspondence  with  Dr.  Stoughton  per- 
ished by  the  shipwreck  of  a  vessel.  .  .  .  Last 
of  all,  his  letters  to  his  missionary  brethren  in 
Burmah  were  lost  by  the  foundering  of  the  ship 
which  was  conveying  them  to  this  country." 
The  work  had  therefore  to  be  constructed  mainly 
from  Dr.  Judson's  official  correspondence  and 
from  the  reminiscences  of  Mrs.  Judson.  Its 
preparation  occupied  all  his  spare  time  for  most 
of  the  year  1852-3.  When  it  was  finished  he 
said  of  it,  "  I  feel  relieved  of  a  pressure  that  has 
not  left  me  since  I  commenced  it.  I  think  it 
will  be  useful  and  interesting.  Indeed  I  feel  a 
more  than  usual  confidence  in  it.  Mrs.  Judson 
thinks  it  truthful.  If  it  should  prove  otherwise 
than  useful  I  shall  regret  it,  for  it  has  taken  a 
year  of  my  time  when  years  begin  to  grow  few. 
...  I  presume  it  will  be  liked  and  disliked,  as 
is  the  fate  of  most  that  I  have  written.  .  .  .  The 
fact  has  been,  that  when  I  got  hold  of  this  work, 
and  the  work  got  hold  of  me,  I  could  not  leave 
it  without  feeling  that  I  was  wasting  time." 

Its  plan  of  construction  was  simple,  if  not 
by  choice,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case  in  the 
loss  of  materials.  The  life  is  unfolded  through 
letters,  through  the  journals  of  Dr.  Judson  and 


216  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

others,  the  links  of  connection  being  supplied  by 
the  biographer,  and  such  commentary  also  as  is 
needed  to  make  the  whole  clear.  The  merit  of 
the  work  consists  therefore  largely  in  the  selec- 
tion, digestion,  and  arrangement  of  the  various 
sources  of  information. 

In  consequence  of  this,  the  part  contributed 
by  Dr.  Wayland's  own  pen  bears  a  comparatively 
small  proportion  to  the  whole.  It  could  hardly 
be  claimed  for  Dr.  Wayland  that  he  had  special 
qualifications  for  such  writing.  His  style  was 
lacking  in  the  lighter  and  more  vivacious  qual- 
ities which  such  biographies  require.  He  had 
never  cultivated  this  vein.  He  could  be  graphic, 
as  passages  in  his  sermons  show.  But  his  pen 
had  been  almost  wholly  exercised  in  a  grave, 
sententious,  and  weighty  expression  of  thought. 
The  biography  has,  however,  the  cardinal  merit 
of  candor  and  impartiality  throughout.  On  all 
points  where  Dr.  Judson's  course  had  been 
called  in  question,^  the  author  meets  the  issue 
fairly,  and  his  conclusions  are  judicial  in  their 
tone.  He  had  the  deepest  veneration  for  Dr. 
Judson's  character,  and  also  sympathy  with  his 
methods.  The  two  men  were  remarkably  alike 
in  their  mental  and  moral  build.     But  it  is  evi- 

1  His  relations  with  the  American  Board,  Memoir  of  Br. 
Judson,  vol.  i.  p.  81 ;  his  alleged  austerities  of  Christian  life, 
Ibid.  vol.  i.  p.  538. 


DR.    WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  217 

dent  that,  as  a  biographer,  the  author  meant  to 
make  judicial  fairness  the  dominant  element  in 
his  estimate.  In  the  sketch  he  gives  of  Bud- 
dhism ^  these  qualities  are  very  distinctly  trace- 
able. When  the  biography  appeared,  the  criti- 
cism was  made  ^  that  he  had  colored  the  views 
of  Dr.  Judson  with  his  own,  regarding  the  true 
method  of  conducting  missions.  Such  opinions 
as,  opposition  to  any  secular  education  as  a  form 
of  missionary  effort,^  and,  opposition  to  large 
missionary  stations,*  may  be  instanced.  An 
examination  of  all  the  passages  in  the  biogra- 
phy which  bear  on  the  question  will  show  that 
their  statements  are  confirmed,  either  by  direct 
quotation  from  Dr.  Judson's  writings,  or  by  the 
citation  of  well-known  facts.  That  the  two  men 
agreed  perfectly  in  their  views  is  clear ;  that  the 
biographer  was  glad  to  confirm  his  own  views  by 
the  authority  of  so  distinguished  a  missionary  is 
true.  As  to  the  opinions  themselves,  they  are 
certainly  open  to  question.  But  such  a  criticism 
on  the  biographer  is  not  warranted.  The  merits 
of  the  memoir  lie  largely  in  the  great  simpli- 
city of  its  structure.  Any  one  familiar  with  the 
facts  of  Dr.  Judson's  career  is  aware  that  in 
parts  it  is  susceptible  of  the  highest  rhetorical 

}  Memoir  of  Br.  Judson,  vol.  i.  pp.  138-153. 
2  Memoir  of  Wayland,  vol.  ii.  p.  120. 
^  Memoir  of  Br.  Judson,  vol.  i.  p.  209. 
*  Ibid.  vol.  ii.  p.  961. 


218  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

presentation.  In  all  the  prison  literature  of  the 
world,  nothing  exceeds  in  tragic  interest  the 
story  of  that  imprisonment  at  Ava  and  Oung- 
Pen-La.  Possibly  the  simplicity  of  its  narra- 
tive as  told  by  Dr.  Wayland  may  be  justifiec-l  on 
the  highest  grounds  of  literary  art.  The  more 
rhetorical  treatment  may  be  left  for  lives  in 
which  the  element  of  moral  grandeur  is  not  so 
predominating. 

For  a  considerable  time  Dr.  Wayland  did  not 
again  enter  into  the  field  of  authorship.  His 
college  duties  and  numerous  calls  for  addresses 
on  public  occasions  absorbed  his  time.  In  1854 
he  published  his  text-book  on  "  Intellectual  Phi- 
losophy." It  was  constructed  on  the  same  plan 
with  his  earlier  efforts  in  the  department  of 
moral  science  and  political  economy.  "  I  have 
not  entered,"  he  says  in  his  Preface,  "  upon  the 
discussion  of  many  of  the  topics  which  have 
called  into  exercise  the  acumen  of  the  ablest 
metaphysicians.  Intended  to  serve  the  purposes 
of  a  text-book,  it  was  necessary  that  the  volume 
should  be  compressed  within  a  compass  adapted 
to  the  time  usually  allotted  to  the  study  of  this 
science  in  the  colleges  of  our  country.  I  have 
therefore  attempted  to  present  and  illustrate  the 
important  truths  in  intellectual  philosophy,  ra- 
ther than  the  inferences  which  may  be  drawn 
from  them,  or  the  doctrines  which  they  may 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  219 

presuppose."  He  follows  in  tlie  main  the  older)  j 
Scotch  school  of  mental  philosophy  as  repre- 
sented in  Reid  and  Stewart.  The  book  did  not, 
however,  gain  the  position  readily  accorded  his  [ 
earlier  works.  For  this,  various  reasons  may  be 
assigned.  It  seemed  at  first  view  to  have  the 
advantage  over  these,  of  longer  preparation,  and 
familiarity  with  more  recent  discussions.  But  it 
can  hardly  be  claimed  for  Dr.  Wayland  that  he 
had  a  metaphysical  mind.  He  was  far  more  ca- 
pable of  broad  generalizations  than  of  the  subtle 
distinctions  which  are  essential  to  the  pursuit  of 
mental  science.  His  bent  was  strono^er  toward 
a  sound  and  discriminating  study  of  practical 
ethics  than  toward  the  involved  problems  of 
metaphysics  or  psychology.  In  a  letter  to  Hon. 
Ellis  Lewis,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania,  he  once  said :  "  The  only  posi- 
tion the  world  could  oifer  me  which  I  have 
thought  I  should  like  is  that  of  a  judge  of  a 
court  whose  decisions  involved  grave  questions 
of  right." 

Nor  had  he  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  ^ 
results  of  German  studies  on  this  subject.  It 
could  hardly  be,  also,  that  any  entirely  adequate 
text-book  could  be  written  on  mental  philosophy 
which  did  not  presuppose  an  acquaintance,  more 
or  less  exact,  with  the  history  of  philosophy,  i 
While  he  entirely  disclaims  all  attempt  to  cover 


220  FJiANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

these  fields,  and  restricts  himself  to  the  "  impor- 
tant truths  in  intellectual  philosophy,"  the  inter- 
est for  teachers,  and  for  students  also,  lies  to  a 
great  extent  in  this  debatable  territory.  Ad- 
mitting all  the  claims  of  his  "  Intellectual  Phi- 
losophy "  to  excellence  in  lucid  statements  and 
clear  discussions,  it  certainly  did  not  equal  as 
a  text-book  either  the  *'  Moral  Science  "  or  the 
"  Political  Economy."  ^ 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  his  "  Intellectual 
Philosophy  "  he  raised  the  question  as  to  whether 
mathematics  did  not  hold  too  great  prominence 
in  the  ordinary  college  curriculum.  He  seems 
in  this  to  have  shared  to  a  degree  the  opinions 
of  Sir  William  Hamilton  as  to  its  disciplinary 
value.  His  position  is  much  more  carefully 
guarded,  is  indeed  far  less  sweeping.^  His  ob- 
jections to  the  study  are  rather  to  its  extent  and 
method,  than  of  an  intrinsic  nature.  The  posi- 
tion he  had  taken  as  to  elective  studies  really  in- 
volved this  view  of  mathematics.    If  the  classics 

1  The  phenomenal  success  of  Dr.  Wayland's  text-books  is 
seen  in  the  statement  of  the  publishers  that  up  to  1890  ''  prob- 
ably not  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  copies  have  been  put 
forth." 

2  "  If  we  consult  reason,  experience,  and  the  common  testi- 
mony of  ancient  and  modern  times,  none  of  our  intellectual 
studies  tend  to  cultivate  a  small  ernumber  of  the  faculties,  in 
a  more  partial  or  feeble  manner,  than  mathematics."  See  Sir 
William  Hamilton's  Discussions  on  Philosophy  and  Literature, 
p.  268. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  221 

are  to  be  dropped  by  those  who  have  no  taste 
for  them,  why  not  mathematics  on  the  same 
grounds?  In  support  of  his  view  he  certainly 
could  appeal  to  the  fact  that  the  proportion  of 
minds  who  have  no  special  aptitude  for  mathe- 
matical study  is  assuredly  as  large  as  that  of 
minds  without  aptitude  for  the  study  of  the 
classics. 

^  The  volume  entitled  "  Principles  and  Practices 
of  Baptists,"  published  in  1856,  is  a  collection 
of  short  papers  prepared  by  Dr.  Wayland  for 
a  religious  weekly,  the  '*  Examiner,"  the  oldest 
Baptist  weekly  in  America.  As  at  first  pro- 
jected, these  papers  were  to  be  a  series  of  eight 
or  ten. 

The  work  grew  on  his  hands  until  the  articles 
ran  through  a  year.  The  numbers  as  they  ap- 
peared from  week  to  week  elicited  growing 
interest.  They  were  short,  pithy,  able  presenta- 
tions of  the  topics  treated.  The  discussions 
touched  on  issues  so  practical,  and  treated  of 
matters  so  vital  to  the  welfare,  not  only  of  the 
denomination  of  Baptists,  but  of  a  wider  eccle- 
siastical circle,  besides  maintaining  firmly  the 
distinctive  Baptist  tenets,  that  he  was  led  to 
collect  and  issue  them  in  the  volume  with  the 
title  named  above.  "The  main  object  of  the 
author,"  he  states  in  his  Preface,  "  has  been  to 
present  a  short  popular  view  of  the  distinctive 


222  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

belief  of  the  Baptist  denomination,  and  to  urge 
upon  his  brethren  a  practice  in  harmony  with 
their  professions."  The  cardinal  principles  of 
Baptists  in  regard  to  Confessions  of  Faith  are 
admirably  stated  in  the  opening  paper.  "  Our 
rule  of  faith  and  practice  is  the  New  Testament." 
"We  believe  in  the  fullest  sense  in  the  inde- 
pendence of  every  individual  church  of  Christ." 
These  are  the  seminal  principles  of  the  denomi- 
nation, and  they  have  undoubtedly  led  to  an  ex- 
altation of  the  Scriptures  as  well  as  an  exeget- 
ical  study  of  them,  which  is  to  the  lasting  honor 
of  the  Baptist  churches.  They  were  principles 
rooted  in  the  soul  of  Dr.  Wayland,  not  only  by 
heredity  and  early  training,  but  by  long  matured 
thinking  on  the  subject.  In  the  two  following 
chapters,  he  unfolds  the  views  of  Baptists  on  the 
distinctive  evangelical  doctrines  of  the  Trinity, 
Human  Depravity,  Atonement,  and  Regenera- 
tion. No  other  doctrines  are  discussed.  He 
shows,  however,  that  on  these  points.  Baptists 
have  always  held  what  are  "  emphatically  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation."  His  discussion  then 
turns  to  the  ministry,  and  is  a  strong  lucid  pres- 
entation of  the  views  of  the  denomination  as  to 
its  province,  its  methods,  and  its  qualifications. 
Eleven  chapters  are  occupied  in  unfolding  what  he 
deemed  the  New  Testament  views  on  the  subject 
of  preaching.     Then  he  takes  up  what  are  com- 


DR.    WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  223 

monly  regarded  as  the  more  distinctive  tenets  of 
the  Baptist  churches,  Baptism,  Mode  of  Admis- 
sion to  the  Ministry  by  the  church,  Hereditary 
Membership  at  variance  with  the  idea  of  the 
spirituality  of  the  church,  the  Right  of  Private 
Judgment,  the  Separation  of  Church  from  the 
State,  Church  Architecture,  Church  Music, 
Worship,  Church  Discipline,  Independence  of 
the  churches,  returning  at  last  to  the  discussion 
of  the  ministry  and  the  structure  of  sermons. 
There  are  in  all  fifty-two  of  these  papers,  the 
main  topics  of  which  are  indicated  above.  Dr. 
Way  land  attempted  no  exhaustive  discussion  of 
many  points.  His  aim  was  different.  But  the  ar- 
ticles are,  for  their  purpose,  models  of  clear,  suc- 
cinct statements,  without  a  vestige  of  contro- 
versial character  in  them.  They  are  of  value  as 
showing  how  dear  to  him  were  the  tenets  of  his 
church,  how  vital  he  deemed  them  to  be  to  the 
upbuilding  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  was 
wont  to  call  himself  an  "  old-fashioned  Baptist." 
He  possibly  was  regarded  by  some  as  too  severe 
in  his  ideas  on  church  music  and  architecture 
and  preaching.  His  views  on  these  tojjlcs  were 
called  in  question  as  not  meeting  the  demands 
of  a  growing  class  of  worshipers,  who  think 
they  need  more  ornate  surroundings  and  greater 
attraction,  in  the  form  of  quartette  choirs.  The 
reply  was  that  other  denominations  provide  these, 


224  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

and  in  harmony  with  their  liturgical  methods. 
Baptist  principles  demand  the  utmost  simplicity. 
Baptist  history  shows  that  the  denomination  has 
grown,  not  by  conforming  to  the  more  ornate 
methods,  but  by  strict  and  strenuous  adhesion  to 
the  oldtime  simplicity.  He  could  be  "  modern  " 
and  "progressive."  in  matters  where  new  light 
was  needed,  as  in  plans  of  education.  But  he 
held  to  the  oldtime  practices  of  the  Baptist 
churches,  because  in  his  judgment  they  squared 
with  the  fixed  principles  of  the  New  Testament. 
And  in  his  stout  and  loyal  assertion  of  the  New 
Testament  as  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice, 
of  the  separation  of  the  church  from  the  state, 
of  the  right  of  private  judgment,  the  candor  and 
earnestness  of  his  statements  will  command  the 
highest  respect.  In  fact,  they  constitute  a  noble 
tribute  to  the  Baptist  churches,  one  of  the  largest 
denominations  in  our  country,  and  whose  work 
in  its  christianization  has  been  from  the  begin- 
ning one  of  depth  and  power.  He  dwelt  at  so 
great  length  on  the  subject  of  the  Christian 
Ministry  ^  because  his  thoughts  were,  in  ttie  lat- 
ter part  of  his  life,  absorbed  largely  by  this 
question.  The  future  of  the  church  of  Christ 
in  his  view  depended  on  the  character  of  its  min- 
istry, and  he  thought  tendencies  w^ere  apparent 
in  all  the  churches  which  threatened  to  destroy 

^  More  than  half  the  articles  treat  of  this  suhject. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  225 

the  efficiency  of  preaching.  These  tendencies 
were  directly  opposed  to  the  earlier  Baptist 
views,  and  he  brought  out  this  divergence  from 
Baptist  principles  with  solemn  earnestness.  The 
position  taken  by  him  was  that  an  "  educated 
ministry,"  meaning  by  this  a  ministry  trained  in 
colleges  and  theological  seminaries,  was  not  of 
necessity  the  ministry  recognized  in  the  New 
Testament  nor  sanctioned  by  the  practices  of  the 
Baptist  Church.  "  It  would  seem,"  he  says, 
"  from  these  passages  (1  Tim.  iii  2-7 ;  Titus 
i.  6-9)  that  any  disciple  of  Christ  of  blameless 
manners  and  pure  character,  meek,  forbearing, 
temperate,  sober,  just,  holy,  thoroughly  attached 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  having  a  natural 
gift  for  teaching,  and  having  had  some  experi- 
ence in  the  Christian  life,  not  a  novice,  has  the 
qualifications  for  the  ministry  which  the  New 
Testament  requires.  These  are  found  to  be  pre- 
cisely the  qualifications  demanded  m  the  mis- 
sionary field,  and  the  men  who  possess  them  are 
the  men  found  to  be  preeminently  useful."  He 
further  argues  that  by  adherence  to  this  rule, 
the  ministry  would  be  increased  both  in  numbers 
and  efficiency.  For  ten  years  at  least,  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Christian  ministry  had  pressed  upon 
his  soul.  It  was  the  theme  of  correspondence 
with  such  divines  as  Dr.  James  W.  Alexander, 
of  New  York,  and  Bishop  Mcllvaine,  of  Ohio. 


226  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

The  brief  pastorate  he  held  over  the  First  Bap- 
tist Church  in  1857-58  only  intensified  convic- 
tions which  had  been  gathering  force  for  years. 
They  had  been  spoken  in  part  at  Rochester,  New 
York,  in  the  sermon  on  the  '*  Apostolic  Minis- 
try." They  had  been  more  fully  uttered  in  the 
"  Notes  on  the  Principles  and  Practices  of 
Baptist  Churches."  But  he  felt  that  the  subject 
needed  fuller  discussion.  Hence  the  little  vol- 
ume "  Letters  on  the  Ministry  of  the  Gospel," 
published  in  1863.  It  made  a  stir  on  its  publi- 
cation. Nothing  he  ever  wrote,  save  the  "  Limi- 
tations of  Human  Responsibility,"  was  so  sharply 
criticised.  In  it  he  compares  the  ministry  of 
the  present  with  that  of  the  past,  not  always  to 
the  advantage  of  the  former.  He  treats  of  a 
"  call "  to  the  ministry,  and  lays  great  stress  on 
the  idea  of  the  Divine  call.  He  devotes  a  chap- 
ter to  the  question,  "Is  the  ministry  a  profes- 
sion ? "  and  finds  lurking  in  the  phraseology 
"  profession  of  the  ministry  "  a  dangerous  ten- 
dency. The  remainder  of  the  volume  unfolds 
the  true  marks  and  aims  of  a  Christian  ministry. 
It  was  thought  and  charged  that  he  was  unduly 
severe  in  his  criticisms  ;  that  he  did  not  do  jus- 
tice to  the  ministry  as  it  really  was;  that  a 
morbid  tone  characterized  the  book.  Some  of 
its  views  are  undoubtedly  extreme,  for  example 
his   objections  to  the   use  of  written   sermons. 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  AN  AUTHOR.  227 

Sometimes  he  reasons  as  if  manifest  exceptions 
were  the  rule,  as  when  he  says  "  the  same  paper 
has  not  very  unfrequently  been  put  to  triple 
duty.  It  first  appears  as  a  sermon,  then  as  a 
platform  address,  or  as  a  lecture  before  some 
literary  society,  then  as  an  article  for  a  popu- 
lar magazine."  It  is  difficult  to  account  for 
the  severity  of  criticism  which  the  book  called 
forth.  If  the  utterances  of  the  author  were 
wounds,  they  were  the  faithful  wounds  of  a 
friend.  The  ideal  he  presents  is  doubtless  a 
very  high  one.  It  is  exacting  in  many  respects 
on  the  side  of  ministerial  work  and  ministerial 
example.  The  motive  which  prompted  the  vol- 
ume and  which  shaped  it  as  a  whole,  was  no  un- 
kind criticism,  but  rather  a  desire  to  help  toward 
higher  efficiency  in  the  sacred  calling.  That  it 
met  a  cordial  response  from  eminent  laymen  and 
many  clergymen  is  well  known. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  of  Dr.  Wayland's 
authorship  that  it  was  controlled  by  a  dominant 
aim  to  secure  practical  results.  Toward  the 
end  of  his  "  Political  Economy,"  he  has  a  short 
section  "  On  consumption  for  the  gratification 
of  desire,"  which  seems  to  be  almost  purely  an 
ethical  discussion.  Indeed,  one  charm  which  the 
study  of  Political  Economy  had  for  him  was  his 
view  that  in  some  of  its  bearings  it  was  closely 
related   to    Moral    Science.     His   books    never 


228  FRANUfs  WAY  LAND. 

wandered  into  any  region  of  speculation.  They 
show  no  wide  reading,  never  suggest  learned 
authorship.  In  fact,  he  had  read  more  widely 
than  his  works  would  show.  But  they  one  and 
all  move  with  practical  purpose  to  a  practical 
end.  Their  direct,  lucid,  serious  style  is  fitted 
to  this  end,  and  to  reach  it  seems  to  have  been 
his  only  ambition  in  the  field  of  authorship. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DR.   WAYLAND   AS   A  PREACHER. 

The  career  of  Dr.  Waylaiid  as  a  preacher 
naturally  divides  into  three  periods.  The  first 
of  these  is  that  of  the  Boston  pastorate,  in  which 
he  published  a  volume  entitled  "  Occasional  Dis- 
courses," containing  his  noted  sermons  on  the 
"  Moral  Dignity  of  the  Missionary  Enterprise  " 
and  on  the  "  Duties  of  an  American  Citizen." 

The  second  period  is  that  of  his  presidency, 
when  he  assumed  the  office  of  college  preacher, 
and  in  the  course  of  which  appeared  the  volume 
called  "University  Sermons,"  delivered  in  the 
chapel  of  Brown  University,  afterwards  repub- 
lished under  the  title  "Salvation  by  Christ." 
The  third  period  is  that  subsequent  to  his  resig- 
nation of  the  presidency,  his  temporary  pas- 
torate of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Providence. 
The  sermons  which  represent  it  were  published 
in  1858,  under  the  title  "  Sermons  to  the 
Churches."  Each  of  these  volumes  embodied 
important  and  differing  characteristics  of  his 
preaching.     Certain  features  are  common  to  all. 


230  FRANCIS   WAY  LAND. 

Together  they  form  a  striking  series,  and  a  com- 
plete view  of  Dr.  Wayland's  pulpit  power  is 
only  gained  as  all  are  studied  in  the  order  of 
their  production. 

What  Dr.  Way  land  was  in  the  ordinary  par- 
ish sermons  of  the  first  pastorate  in  Boston,  we 
have  now  little  means  of  knowing.  He  in  later 
years  was  a  severe  critic  upon  his  earlier  preach- 
ing. He  condemned  it  as  more  an  intellectual 
than  a  moral  exercise.  He  bewailed  his  mis- 
take of  having  used  written  sermons  rather  than 
extempore  discourse.  His  people,  however,  and 
he  had  hearers  who  would  have  been  keenly  sen- 
sitive to  ambitious  display  in  the  pulpit,  never 
expressed  any  opinions  adverse  to  the  spiritual 
tone  of  his  preaching.  And  most  persons  who 
heard  him  would  have  greatly  preferred  see- 
ing the  preacher  with  manuscript  before  him. 
In  his  first  sermon  to  the  people,  he  laid  down 
the  principles  which  were  to  guide  him  in  his 
preaching. 

1.  He  must  deliver  to  his  people,  without  ad- 
dition or  retrenchment,  the  truths  contained  in 
the  Holy  Word. 

2.  He  must  deliver  each  distinct  truth  to 
those  for  whom  his  Master  has  designed  it. 

3.  He  must  deliver  the  truth  in  such  manner 
as  his  Master  has  directed. 

The  only  noteworthy  thing  here  is,  that  this 


DR.   WAYLAIVD  AS  A  PREACHER.  231 

strictly  Biblical  idea  of  preacliing  was  never 
forgotten  nor  forsaken  by  him.  There  is  little 
or  no  trace  of  formal  structure  or  horniletical 
rules  in  his  sermons.  They  are  all  shaped  by 
the  Scriptural  idea.  If  he  found  truths  in  the 
Bible  which  were  in  apparent  conflict,  he  never 
attempted  anything  like  a  reconciliation  of  them. 
Thus  in  the  first  sermon  to  his  Boston  people, 
after  speaking  of  some  "  obscurities  connected 
with  the  truths  of  God's  Word,"  he  adds :  — 

"Here  it  may  be  asked,  Is  not  God  consis- 
tent with  Himself  ?  and  if  we  find  one  doctrine 
clearly  revealed  and  another  which  we  cannot 
reconcile  with  it,  is  it  not  evident  that  the  one 
or  the  other  must  be  taken  with  some  limita- 
tions, and  in  our  preaching  are  we  not  bound 
to  limit  it?  We  answer,  God  is  doubtless  con- 
sistent with  Himself,  but  He  has  never  appointed 
us  judges  of  his  consistency ;  and  until  He  shall 
thus  appoint  us,  it  were  certainly  modest  in  us 
to  decline  the  office.  We  answer  again.  If  two 
such  doctrines  occur  —  and  they  may  doubtless 
occur  —  the  duty  of  the  minister  is  to  preach 
them  both,  fully  and  clearly,  as  they  are  re- 
vealed in  the  Scriptures.  He  has  nothing  to  do 
with  their  consistency.  If  his  hearers  object  on 
this  account,  the  controversy  is  between  God 
and  their  own  souls,  and  there  must  the  minis- 
ter of  Christ  leave  it." 


232  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

This  is  common  sense,  but  it  has  been  too  un- 
common in  the  pulpit.  The  day  has  not  yet 
passed  when  preachers  think  they  must  "  recon- 
cile" St.  Paul  and  St.  James,  or  science  with 
religion.  This  however  is  not  the  "  ministry  of 
reconciliation  "  in  the  Pauline  sense.  Dr.  Way- 
land  never  attempted  it.  He  has  no  theory  of 
the  atonement.  Nothing  like  a  theological  sys- 
tem is  discernible  in  his  sermons.  What  he  found 
in  the  Bible  that  he  preached,  and  let  the  hearer 
reconcile  the  truth  of  free  agency  with  that  of 
Divine  control  by  his  own  common  sense.  It 
was  his  "  occasional "  sermons  —  such  as  the  Mis- 
sionary Discourse,  the  two  sermons  on  the 
"  Duties  of  an  American  Citizen  "  with  that  on 
the  "  Death  of  the  Ex-President  "  —  which  at- 
tracted notice  to  him  as  a  preacher.  Dr.  Way- 
land  says  that  in  consequence  of  the  reputation 
these  discourses  gave  him  he  "  was  led  to  think 
that  plain,  simple,  unadorned  address,  though 
suitable  to  other  occasions,  would  not  be  suita- 
ble for  the  pulpit."  His  criticism  on  himself  is 
hardly  borne  out  by  the  specimens  of  his  preach- 
ing given  in  his  later  volume  of  University  Ser- 
mons. They  are  remarkable  and  commendable 
for  their  simplicity  of  structure  and  style.  His 
first  volume,  '*  Occasional  Discourses,"  brings 
out  his  power  as  a  preacher  on  such  themes. 
These  must  of  necessity  be  more  elaborate,  more 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  233 

finished,  than  the  ordinary  ministrations  of  the 
pulpit.  He  always  brought  to  their  composition 
his  fullest  powers,  and  rose  easily  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  occasion.  In  his  own  community, 
if  the  death  of  an  eminent  citizen  and  public 
benefactor  1  were  to  be  commemorated,  if  a 
great  public  crisis  needed  notice,^  if  any  benev- 
olent movement  required  public  support,^  the 
instinct  was  to  turn  to  him  for  the  needed  utter- 
ances. His  services  were  sought  in  a  far  wider 
field,  and  his  "  occasional "  sermons  were  always 
on  a  high  level.  His  power  was  unabated  by 
years.  The  sermon  on  the  "  Apostolic  Minis- 
try "  at  Rochester  in  1853,  while  it  is  different 
in  style  from  the  celebrated  Missionary  Discourse 
of  1823,  produced  almost  as  much  impression, 
and  has  in  it  quite  as  much  of  enduring  power. 
His  two  discourses,  "  Thoughts  on  the  Present 
Distress,"  ^.  e.  the  financial  panic  of  1857,  are 
noteworthy  for  the  practical  wisdom  of  his 
points,  for  the  way  in  which  he  brought  his  stud- 
ies in  political  economy  to  bear  on  the  subject, 

1  Discourses  on  the  deaths  of  Nicholas  Brown  ;  Professor 
William  E.  Goddard ;  Rev.  James  N.  Granger,  D.  D. ;  Moses 
B.  Ives. 

2  Discourse  on  the  Affairs  of  Rhode  Island,  1842  ;  Discourse 
on  the  Present  (Financial)  Ci-isis,  1857. 

3  Sermon  before  the  Howard  Benevolent  Society ;  Discourse 
on  Claims  of  Whalemen ;  Sermon  on  the  Fast-Day  for  the  Vis- 
itation of  Cholera,  1849. 


234  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

for  the  insight  with  which  he  traced  the  origin 
of  the  calamity  to  moral  conditions,  and  for  the 
breadth  of  didactic  treatment  displayed.  The 
"vice"  of  such  discourses  is  overdoing;  is  un- 
wise, extreme  talk,  easily  dismissed  as  "  pulpit " 
morals.  With  this  vice,  his  discourses  are  never 
tainted.  The  very  calmness  and  moderation  of 
his  tone  gave  it  immense  power. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  sphere  of 
the  preacher,  "  occasional  discourses,"  as  they 
are  called,  must  hold  a  very  high  place.  They 
subserve  the  highest  religious  and  moral  uses. 
The  power  of  the  pulpit  can  be  maintained  over 
the  public  mind  only  as  the  grave  crises  in  pub- 
lic affairs  are  met  worthily  by  timely  utterances. 
From  the  days  of  Chrysostom  to  the  present,  the 
preacher  has  gained  some  of  his  most  enduring 
triumphs  in  such  emergencies.  The  press  can- 
not usurp  this  function.  It  may  be  or  may  be- 
come a  most  powerful  ally  in  rebuking  public 
corruption,  or  advocating  high  reform,  or  incit- 
ing noble  benevolence.  The  preachers  who  real- 
ize this  great  attribute  of  the  Christian  ministry 
and  use  it,  alone  fill  out  the  measure  of  their  re- 
sponsibility. It  is  certainly  one  of  Dr.  Way- 
land's  great  services  to  his  day  and  generation 
that,  as  the  preacher  of  "  occasional  discourses," 
he  has  given  dignity  to  the  American  pulpit, 
and  earned  for  himself  a  just  fame  as  one  of  the 
wisest  and  noblest  of  religious  teachers. 


DR.  WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  235 

Dr.  Wayland's  "University  Sermons,"  pub- 
lished in  1849,  were  a  selection  from  the  dis- 
courses preached  in  the  college  on  Sunday  af- 
ternoons. At  what  time  after  assuming  the 
presidency  he  began  this  practice,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  state  with  exactness.^  It  was  intermitted 
for  a  few  years,  but  resumed  in  1845,  and  con- 
tinued thenceforward  to  the  close  of  his  presi- 
dential career.  The  attendance  on  these  ser- 
vices was  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  students, 
and  they  came  to  them  almost  in  a  body. 
About  the  same  time,  it  would  seem,  that  Dr. 
Arnold  was  beginning  that  course  of  Kugby 
Sermons,  which  in  England  set  on  foot  the 
practice  in  the  other  great  public  schools,  and 
on  which  so  much  of  Dr.  Arnold's  fame  rests, 
Dr.  Wayland  was  instituting  the  same  method 
of  moral  and  religious  teaching  in  Brown  Uni- 
versity. There  was  no  college  church  organiza- 
tion of  which  he  was  pastor  in  name  or  in  fact, 
such  as  had  long  existed  in  Yale  College.     From 

1  From  a  letter  written  to  his  mother  in  1832  by  Mrs.  Way- 
land,  we  learn  that  "for  three  Sabbaths  past  he  has  preached 
to  the  students  and  to  the  officers  and  their  families  in  the 
college  chapel."  This  would  make  the  date  of  the  chapel 
preaching  about  six  years  after  assuming  the  office  of  presi- 
dent. It  was  no  part  of  his  official  duty  as  prescribed  by  the 
Corporation,  but  purely  a  voluntary  undertaking.  In  May, 
1834,  he  was  invited  by  the  "Religious  Society"  of  the  col- 
lege, by  a  formal  vote,  to  preach  regularly  before  the  society 
on  Sunday  afternoons  as  he  had  already  done  occasionally. 


236  FRANCIS    WAY  LAND. 

the  beginning,  as  in  the  college  of  New  Jersey 
at  Princeton,  after  which  it  was,  as  Rhode  Island 
College,  somewhat  modeled,  its  first  president, 
James  Manning,  having  been  a  graduate  of  the 
former  institution,  no  connection  with  any  de- 
nomination was  made  by  Brown  University. 
Beyond  the  fact  that  its  president  must  by 
charter  be  a  Baptist,  no  denominational  color- 
ing was  visible.  It  was  on  this  broad  and  cath- 
olic basis  that  Dr.  Wayland  instituted  these 
chapel  sermons,  as  it  was  on  a  similar  basis  that 
the  Rugby  Sermons  seem  to  have  been  con- 
structed. Like  Dr.  Arnold,^  he  "  made  a  point 
of  varying  the  more  directly  practical  addresses 
with  sermons  on  the  interpretation  of  Scripture 
and  Evidences  of  Christianity,  or  on  the  dan- 
gers of  [the  student's]  after  life."  Dean  Stan- 
ley's description  of  Dr.  Arnold's  preaching  will 
apply  almost  word  for  word  to  Dr.  Wayland. 

"  But  more  than  either  matter  or  manner  of 
his  preaching,  was  the  impression  of  himself. 
Even  the  mere  readers  of  his  sermons  will  de- 
rive from  them  the  history  of  his  whole  mind, 
and  of  his  whole  management  of  the  school. 
But  to  his  hearers  it  was  more  than  this.  It 
was  (the  man  himself,  there,  more  than  in  any 
other  place,  concentrating  all  his  faculties  and 
feelings  on  one  sole  object,  combating  face  to 

1  Stanley's  Life  of  Arnold,  pp.  152-158. 


DR.   WAYLAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  237 

face  the  evil,  with  which  directly  or  indirectly 
he  was  elsewhere  perpetually  struggling.  He 
was  not  the  preacher  or  the  clergyman,  who  had 
left  behind  all  his  usual  thought  and  occupa- 
tions, as  soon  as  he  had  ascended  the  pulpit. 
He  was  still  the  scholar,  the  historian,  and  the 
theologian,  basing  all  that  he  said,  not  indeed 
ostensibly,  but  consciously,  and  often  visibly,  on 
the  deepest  principles  of  the  past  and  present. 
He  was  still  the  instructor  and  the  schoolmaster, 
only  teaching  and  educating  with  increased  so- 
lemnity and  energy.  *  He  was  still  the  simple- 
hearted  and  earnest  man,  laboring  to  win  others 
to  share  in  his  own  personal  feelings  of  disgust 
at  sin,  and  love  of  goodness,  and  to  trust  to  the 
same  faith  in  which  he  hoped  to  live  and  die 
himself." 

The  influence  he  wielded  in  the  college  pulpit 
was  thus  one  of  the  most  salient  features  of  Dr. 
Wayland's  career.  It  could  not  be  said  of  him 
that  he  was  an  orator,  yet  at  times  these  sermons 
rose  to  an  eloquence  seldom  surpassed  in  the 
pulpit.  His  noble  and  commanding  presence, 
his  depth  and  trueness  of  moral  and  religious 
feeling,  his  absolute  independence  of  thought, 
his  high  sense  of  responsibility  as  the  ambassa- 
dor of  God,  his  solemn  and  unaffected  concern 
for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  students,  his 
thorough  preparation  for  the  service,  all  were 


238  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

elements  of  this  power.  Let  one  such  sermon 
be  recalled  in  illustration  of  what  his  preaching 
could  do  in  moulding  student  character.  It  was 
on  a  Sunday  afternoon  in  June,  1850.  The 
senior  class  was  nearing  its  graduation.  His 
teachings  were  at  such  a  time  apt  to  take  a 
somewhat  wider  range,  and  touch  on  issues  then 
confronting  the  men  soon  to  take  part  in  active 
life.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  had  been  passed. 
The  Northern  conscience  had  been  roused  at  the 
possibility  of  being  called  on  to  take  part  in 
the  arrest  of  fugitive  slaves.  His  theme  for  that 
Sunday  was  on  the  necessity  of  individual  benev- 
olence to  the  stability  of  civil  society.  In  the 
course  of  the  sermon  he  had  occasion  to  speak 
of  human  oppression  and  oppressors.  Evidently 
his  own  soul  was  on  fire  with  indignation  against 
the  enactment  which  hung  over  the  head  of 
every  man  in  the  North.  There  was  no  direct 
allusion  to  it.  But  breaking  loose  from  the 
manuscript  before  him,  pushing  up  his  glasses 
on  his  forehead,  as  his  wont  was  on  occasion,  he 
burst  into  extempore  speech  on  the  nature  of 
human  oppression,  its  injustice,  and  its  intolera- 
ble evils.  His  whole  frame  seemed  to  dilate,  the 
deep-sunken  eye  flashed  from  under  the  shaggy, 
overhanging  brow,  his  voice  trembled,  and  the 
sentences  charged  with  the  intensest  feeling,  but 
weighty  with  the  noblest  convictions,  fell  like 


DR.  WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  239 

bolts  upon  the  audience.  The  moral  grandeur 
of  the  whole  scene  left  indelible  impressions  on 
the  memory  of  every  student.  Such  outbursts 
were  not  uncommon.  They  measured  always 
the  high-water  mark  in  his  power  to  stamp  moral 
impressions  on  his  hearers.  It  is  the  quality  to 
which  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Providence  ^  alluded 
when,  at  the  meeting  called  to  take  some  public 
notice  of  Dr.  Wayland's  death,  he  said  :  "  If  I 
were  to  speak  of  the  things  done  by  him  which 
I  think  were  most  remarkable,  I  should  not  ^n 
upon  any  of  the  great  works  by  which  he  is 
known  all  over  the  Christian  world.  I  should 
recall  some  of  the  sermons  which  he  preached  in 
the  old  chapel  on  what  was  called  the  Annual 
College  Fast,  some  of  those  occasions  upon  which 
he  laid  himself  alongside  of  the  young  men  in 
college,  and,  with  all  the  earnestness  of  which  he 
was  capable,  tried  to  bring  them  to  his  way  of 
thinking  upon  the  subject  of  religion.  I  have 
never  heard  anything  in  human  speech  superior 
to  passages  in  some  of  these  addresses.  And  I 
am  very  much  mistaken  if,  when  that  sifting  pro- 
cess has  been  performed  upon  his  works  which 
has  to  be  performed  upon  the  works  of  every 
author,  some  of  those  University  Sermons,  as  I 
believe  they  were  called,  will  not  survive  every* 
thing  else  that  he  has  written  or  spoken.'* 

1  Abram  Payne,  Esq. 


240  FRANCIS  WAYLAND, 

While  the  volume  of  University  Sermons  does 
not  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  range  taken 
in  his  pulpit  efforts,  they  do  illustrate  some  of 
his  distinctive  traits  as  a  university  preacher. 
The  most  obvious  of  these  is  the  breadth  of  treat- 
ment which  he  brought  to  all  questions.  In  the 
sermons  on  "  Theoretical  and  Practical  Athe- 
ism," in  those  on  the  "  Moral  Character  of  Man," 
this  is  specially  manifest.  We  move  in  the 
larger  circles  of  thought.  The  discussion  never 
drops  into  the  smaller  issues,  important  of  course, 
but  not  in  touch  with  the  generalizing  method 
he  pursued.  Every  hearer  of  sermons  is  accus- 
tomed to  recognize  the  sudden  contraction  of  in- 
terest when  such  a  drop  occurs.  It  is  this  large 
treatment  more,  perhaps,  than  any  subtilty  of  ar- 
gument, more  certainly  than  any  brilliant  origi- 
nality of  style,  which  at  the  time  gave  these  dis- 
courses their  power  on  the  young  minds  listen- 
ing to  them.  Here  and  there  are  passages  in 
which  st3de  and  thought  alike  move  in  this  im- 
pressive sweep.  One  such  is  found  in  the  ser- 
mon on  "  Love  to  Man."  ^  He  had  been  dis- 
cussing the  truth  that  the  history  of  human  gov- 
ernments furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
fact  that  man  does  not  love  his  neighbor  as  him- 
self. After  an  allusion  to  the  expenditure  of 
human  talent  toward  a  solution  of  the  problem 

^  University  Sermons,  p.  74. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  241 

how  to  secure  stable  government,  and  also  the 
liberties  of  the  governed,  he  proceeds  :  — 

"  Hence  it  has  happened,  I  think,  that  the 
most  stable  governments  on  earth  have  been  civil 
or  spiritual  despotisms.  When  rulers  form  an 
intelligent  and  vigilant  caste,  and  can  withhold 
from  the  people  a  knowledge  of  their  rights  ;  or 
when  a  priesthood  can  persuade  them  that  their 
eternal  salvation  depends  upon  unquestioning 
obedience  to  the  mandates  of  a  hierarchy ;  and 
specially  when  these  two  forms  of  despotism  can 
be  united,  —  that  is,  when  you  can  deprive  men 
of  the  exercise  of  their  reason  and  conscience, 
until,  in  some  of  the  most  important  respects, 
they  cease  to  be  men,  —  then,  they  may  be  gov- 
erned in  quietness.  If  you  can  turn  men  into 
brutes,  you  may  govern  them  like  brutes.  But 
restore  them  to  their  rank,  as  the  intelligent  and 
responsible  creatures  of  God,  and  their  passions, 
stimulated  by  liberty,  defy  restraint,  and  ren- 
der a  permanent  government  almost  impossible. 
Hence  it  has  been  so  often  remarked  that  the 
civil  institutions  of  man  have,  in  all  ages,  trod- 
den with  greater  or  less  rapidity  the  same  in- 
variable circle,  from  anarchy  to  despotism,  and 
from  despotism  again  to  anarchy.  The  forms  of 
government  which  have  endured  longest  have 
been  those  which  have  vibrated  from  time  to 
time  between   opposite   extremes.      When  this 


242  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

invariable  circle  has  been  trodden  slowly,  the 
changes  have  been  less  violent,  and  mankind 
have,  at  intervals  of  peace,  been  permitted  to 
enjoy  the  blessings  bestowed  upon  them  by  their 
Creator ;  where,  on  the  other  hand,  this  circle 
has  been  rapidly  passed  over,  and  civil  institu- 
tions, by  the  turbulence  of  passion,  have  been  fre- 
quently overturned,  the  race  of  man,  worn  out 
with  the  struggle,  has  ceased  from  the  earth ; 
and  thus  it  has  happened  that  whole  regions, 
once  the  abode  of  wealth  and  civilization,  are 
now  a  wilderness  ;  and  the  remains  of  once  pop- 
ulous cities  have  become  the  lair  of  the  lion  and 
the  hiding-place  of  the  jackal." 

His  sermons  had  also  a  tone  of  mental  inde- 
pendence about  them  which  gave  them  added 
power  over  a  student  audience.  It  was  evident 
that  he  belonged  to  no  school  in  theology,  and 
that  he  held  all  party  allegiance  to  be  subser- 
vient to  a  higher  moral  allegiance.  "  I  stand," 
he  said  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Withington,^  "to 
whatever  God  has  said ;  what  men  infer  from 
it  is  merely  human,  and  weighs  with  me  just 
nothing."  In  the  same  letter  he  defines  his  doc- 
trinal position  as  that  of  a  "  moderate  Calvinist." 
"  The  sharp  angles  of  Calvinism,  which  need  to 
be  filed  and  hammered  out  in  order  to  make  a 
system,  I  desire  to  hold  no  opinion  about.     It 

^  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  126. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  243 

seems  to  me  that  the  fault  of  all  theological  sys- 
tems arises  from  logical  sequences  drawn  from 
some  revealed  truth."  When,  therefore,  he  came 
to  handle  doctrinal  subjects  in  the  pulpit,  he 
treated  them  in  his  own  way,  following  no  re- 
ceived opinions  unless  they  squared  with  his  own 
thinking.  Thus  he  rejects  such  a  term  as  "  to- 
tal depravity."  No  such  character,  in  his  view, 
is  ascribed  to  man  in  the  Scriptures.  In  his  ser- 
mon on  the  work  of  the  Messiah,  he  laid  great 
stress  on  the  subjective  elements  of  the  atone- 
ment in  Christ's  obedience  and  character.  For 
this  he  was  criticised  as  failing  to  present  a  com- 
plete view  of  the  doctrine.  His  sermons  on 
the  unity  of  the  church,  breathing  as  they  do 
that  generous  and  ample  catholicity  of  spirit  so 
marked  in  him,  were  said  to  be  open  to  the 
charge  of  "  latitudinarianism."  But  never  speak- 
ing as  the  mouthpiece  of  a  school  or  sect,  he 
spoke  with  all  the  more  effect  to  the  young  men 
who  made  up  his  audience.  He  held  with  Chil- 
lingworth  that  "  nothing  is  necessary  to  be  be- 
lieved but  what  is  plainly  revealed."  Into  these 
plain  revelations  he  threw  his  whole  soul.  They 
made  the  staple  of  his  preaching  in  the  college 
chapel  as  elsewhere.  Nothing  in  the  shape  of 
a  speculative  argument  ever  escaped  him.  His 
University  Sermons  are  all  in  the  best  and  deep- 
est sense  practical.     This  aim  affects  their  style. 


244  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

They  are  models  of  Saxon  directness,  saying 
things  without  circumlocution,  and  saying  them 
in  terse,  clear  sentences,  which  have  in  them  at 
once  transparent  sincerity  and  moral  energy. 

It  would  give  no  complete  view  of  what  Dr. 
Way  land  was  as  a  university  preacher  were 
certain  adjuncts  to  that  preaching  not  consid- 
ered ;  one  of  these  was  his  devotional  exercises, 
the  other  his  pastoral  work  among  the  students. 
The  importance  of  daily  worship  in  the  college 
chapel  is  best  realized  when  that  worship  is 
worthily  conducted.  Students  are  quick  to  de- 
tect whatever  is  conventional,  whatever  savors 
of  cant,  whatever  is  cheap  and  common.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  respond  to  what  is  sincere 
and  high  in  such  devotions.  The  plea  for  vol- 
untary attendance  on  chapel  services  would  be 
shorn  of  nearly  all  its  force,  if  the  devotional 
exercises  in  our  chapels  were  what  they  ought  to 
be.  But  the  students  of  Brown  University,  re- 
calling the  little,  ill-lighted  chapel,  with  its  wide 
gallery,  its  narrow  stairs,  its  well-carved  benches, 
must  always  regTet  its  disappearance,  or  rather 
its  transformation  into  a  modern  lecture  room. 
It  is  indelibly  associated  with  Dr.  Wayland's 
majestic  presence  on  early  winter  mornings,  or 
on  evenings,  when  the  recitations  for  the  day 
ended,  he  led  the  devotions  of  the  college  in 
those  brief  but  most  solemnly  impressive  prayers. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  245 

It  may  be  that  there  was  "  disregard  o£  conven- 
tional proprieties,"  yet  there  was  always  a  "  gen- 
uine and  awful  sense  of  divine  sanctities."     The 
educating  power  of  such  services  cannot  well  be 
overestimated.     To  hear  Dr.  Wayland  in  these 
prayers  was  to  be  conscious  of  a  soul  realizing 
the  dread  fact  of  the  Divine  Presence  fully  to 
itself,  and  by  the  power  of  personal  influence 
bringing  the  young  minds  before  the  mercy-seat 
under  the  same  subduing  consciousness.     What 
he  was  in  the  daily  chapel  exercises,  he  was  even 
more  in  the  devotions  preceding  and  following 
his  sermons.     At  times  they  rose  certainly  to  a 
height   of   moral   impressiveness   which   makes 
them  live  forever  in  the  memory  of  his  pupils. 
The  stillness  of  the  College  Chapel  on  such  occa- 
sions was  almost  oppressive.    They  prepared  the 
soul  for  reception  of  the  truth.     It  was,  to  use 
an  old  term,  "  solemnized."     They  deepened  the 
impression  the  truth  had  made.     They  were  ut- 
tered when  his  own  moral  nature  had  been  deeply 
roused  by  his  presentation  of  the  truth,  and  then 
came  those  outbursts  of  emotion  de  prqfundis 
which  affect  other  souls  only  as  the  pent-up  feel- 
ings of  a  strong  nature  can.     An  instance  of 
this  remarkable  power  in  prayer  is  given  in  the 
"  Memoirs  "  ^  in  connection  with  the  opening  of 
a  term  of  the  United  States  Court,  Mr.  Justice 
Story  presiding :  — 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  273. 


246  FRANC  1 8  WAY  LAND. 

"  It  was  an  invocation  of  the  presence  of  God 
as  the  author  and  source  of  all  justice,  and  the 
Being  before  whom  the  judges  of  the  earth  would 
all  stand  to  give  an  account  of  the  manner  in 
which  they  had  administered  the  laws  among 
men.  An  allusion  to  the  omnipresence  of  God 
made  me  tremble.  '  Hell  is  naked  before  thee, 
and  destruction  hath  no  covering.'  1  recall  no 
passages  in  his  sermons  or  addresses  that  surpass 
in  sublimity  some  portions  of  that  prayer.  Spec- 
tators, jurors,  advocates,  and  judges  were  hushed 
into  perfect  stillness  during  its  utterance ;  and  I 
asked  myself  who,  during  that  session  of  court, 
would  dare  to  connive  at  injustice  or  to  devise 
or  award  anything  which  would  not  be  approved 
at  the  final  judgment  day.  The  court  seemed 
to  me  but  a  faint  and  poor  imitation  of  the  great 
tribunal  before  which  we  must  all  appear." 

Another  adjunct  to  his  work  as  university 
preacher  was  his  pastoral  care  of  young  men. 
While  this  was  never  laid  aside  wholly,  it  was  in 
the  revivals  occurring  during  his  presidency  that 
it  was  most  conspicuous.  Five  of  these  stand 
out  prominently  in  the  religious  history  of  the 
college.  In  the  years  1834,  1838-41,  1847,  and 
1848-50,  there  occurred  these  religious  awaken- 
ings which  have  left  in  the  Christian  career  of 
such  men  as  the  late  Dr.  Henry  M.  Dexter,  edi- 
tor of  the  "  Congregationalist,"  Professor  George 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  247 

P.  Fisher,  President  James  B.  Angell,  and  the 
late  Professor  Diman,  lasting  impressions  on  the 
history  of  the  American  Church.  These  men  all 
came  directly  under  Dr.  Wayland's  Christian 
guidance.  The  eye-witnesses  of  such  seasons  can 
never  forget  their  absorbing  impressiveness  and 
power,  although  the  work  of  the  college  went 
regularly  on.  There  was  no  sort  of  "profession- 
alism "  in  the  conduct  of  the  services.  It  was  sim- 
ply and  absolutely  a  manly,  thoughtful,  serious  at- 
tention to  the  demands  of  Christian  life  upon  the 
soul.  Then  it  was  that  Dr.  Wayland  showed  his 
full  power  as  a  religious  guide.  In  his  off-hand 
addresses  at  the  college  prayer  meetings,  held  in 
the  old  chapel  in  University  Hall,  he  reasoned 
with  and  appealed  to  the  students  out  of  a  soul 
full  to  overflowing  with  a  sense  of  the  adapted- 
ness  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  their  minds.  They 
were  solemn  at  times  with  an  unutterable  solem- 
nity, as  he  spoke  of  eternal  interests.  They  were 
tender  at  times  with  a  subduing  pathos,  as  his 
own  great  heart  melted  under  some  view  of  the 
love  of  Christ.  They  were  awful,  when  occasion- 
ally he  dwelt  on  sin  and  its  consequences.  To 
quote  the  words  of  a  distinguished  lawyer,  "  he 
laid  himself  alongside  of  the  young  men,"  and 
the  closeness  of  the  contact  was  felt  by  every 
heart  and  conscience.  But  his  efforts  did  not 
end  with  these  addresses.    He  was  sought  out  in 


248  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

the  seclusion  of  his  study  by  young  men  who  had 
doubts  to  be  solved,  or  difficulties  to  be  removed, 
who  needed  guidance  in  his  pastoral  care  of 
their  struggling  souls.  These  interviews  have 
been  described  by  more  than  one  of  his  pupils. 
Professor  J.  L.  Diman  has  in  a  tribute  to  Dr. 
Way  land  ^  put  on  record  the  following  which  is 
drawn  from  his  own  experience. 

"In  the  most  difficult  task  of  dealing  with 
young  men  at  the  crisis  of  tlieir  spiritual  history. 
Dr.  Wayland  was  unsurpassed.  How  wise  and 
tender  his  counsels  at  such  a  time  !  How  many 
who  have  timidly  stolen  to  his  study  door,  their 
souls  burdened  with  strange  tlioughts  and  be- 
wildered with  unaccustomed  questionings,  re- 
member with  what  instant  appreciation  of  their 
errand  the  green  shade  was  lifted  from  the  eye, 
the  volume  thrown  aside,  and  with  what  genuine 
hearty  interest  that  whole  countenance  would 
beam !  At  such  an  interview  he  would  often 
read  the  parable  of  the  returning  prodigal,  and 
who  that  heard  can  ever  forget  the  pathos  with 
which  he  would  dwell  upon  the  words." 

His  wisdom  was  apparent  in  all  these  inter- 
views. He  eschewed  any  stereotyped  form  of 
dealing  with  religious  inquirers.  More  fre- 
quently than  any  other  method,  he  used  the  par- 
able of  the  prodigal  son,  as  Professor  Diman 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  xxi.  p.  71. 


DR.   WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER  249 

has  suggested,  reading  it  verse  by  verse,  and 
making  it  the  steps  of  a  return  to  God  in  the 
case  of  the  soul  with  whom  he  was  dealing.  He 
had  common  sense  too  in  his  methods.  To  one 
student,  whose  brain  was  weary  with  thinking 
he  said,  "  Go  off  and  walk.  Be  in  the  air  all 
day."  His  advice  to  another  ^  to  "  make  one 
honest  effort"  has,  with. the  incident  that  called 
it  forth,  been  made  the  subject  of  a  tract  of  wide 
usefulness. 

His  Bible  class  was  another  agency  in  mould- 
ing the  religious  character  of  the  students.  It 
does  not  appear  that  in  Brown  University,  so  far 
as  the  curriculum  of  study  was  concerned,  any 
course  of  Biblical  study  was  provided  for.  Early, 
however,  in  his  presidential  career,  he  gave  the 
students  opj)ortunity  for  systematic  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  by  instituting  his  so-called  "  Bible 
Class,"  which  was  conspicuous  in  the  religious 
history  of  the  college  during  his  presidency. 
The  power  he  had  gained  in  the  class-room,  as 
instructor,  was  all  subsidized  for  the  teaching  of 
the  word  of  God.  This  class  was  held  on  Sunday 
evenings  in  the  old  chapel.  Attendance  of  course 
was  voluntary.  The  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was 
the  portion  of  the  Scriptures  ordinarily  chosen 

1  The  son  of  the  cler^man,  Dr.  Maleom,  who  in  the  strug- 
gling years  of  Dr.  Wayland  had  offered  him  generous  aid  in 
the  completion  of  his  studies. 


250  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

for  study.  That  gave  him  opportunity  and  scope 
for  those  broad  discussions  of  man's  moral  na- 
ture in  which  he  so  delighted.  It  enabled  him 
to  expound  the  redemptive  system  in  which  he 
found  the  only  hope  for  the  race.  Yet  in  all  his 
instruction  there  was  no  attempt  to  formulate  a 
theological  system  nor  to  bring  in  the  apostle's 
teaching  in  support  of  any.  It  could  not  have 
been  ascertained  from  his  expositions  to  what 
denomination  of  Christians  he  belon<red.  De- 
voted,  conscientious  Baptist  though  he  was,  yet 
his  denominationalism  was  shut  out  of  the  col- 
lege walls  as  strenuously  as  he  sought  to  bring 
into  them  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come.  His 
study  of  the  epistle  was  minute.  Every  word 
was  subjected  to  scrutiny.  The  year  of  study 
he  had  pursued  at  Andover  under  Professor 
Stuart,  had  qualified  him  to  bring  an  intelligent 
exegesis  into  play.  The  best  evidence  of  its 
fruitfulness  as  a  means  of  good  is  seen  in  the 
fact,  that  the  discussions  then  begun  were  after- 
ward carried  on  in  college  rooms,  and  seen  also 
in  the  remembrance  which  every  student  in  that 
Bible  class  cherishes  of  its  profitable  hours. 

Of  Dr.  Wayland's  sermons  during  his  tem- 
porary pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
1857-8,  it  is  perhaps  to  be  regretted  that  so  few 
were  published.  The  volume  entitled  "  Sermons 
to  the  Churches,"  published  in  1858,  is  made  up 


DR.  WAY  LAND  AS  A  PREACHER.  251 

of  occasional  and  baccalaureate  sermons  mainly, 
the  last  three  only  representing  his  latest  style 
of  preaching,  that  of  this  brief  pastoral  charge.^ 
It  had  changed  somewhat.  It  was  less  elaborate, 
less  ornate.  The  utmost  simplicity  and  direct- 
ness were  now  his  constant  aim.  There  was  the 
same  felicity  of  illustration,  but  the  illustrations 
were  of  a  more  familiar  cast.  Perhaps  also  the 
comment  made  by  a  hearer  gives  another  aspect 
of  it :  "  His  preaching  was  moral  philosophy  ani- 
mated by  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel."  Illustrations 
of  this  may  be  readily  found  in  his  sermon  on 
the  "  Perils  of  Riches,"  ^  and  in  those  called  forth 
by  the  financial  crisis  of  1857.  Indeed,  it  is  an 
instructive  lesson  in  homiletics  to  notice  how  he 
brought  his  studies  in  political  economy  to  bear 
on  the  presentation  of  such  and  kindred  topics. 

Dr.  Wayland  passed  successfully  the  varied 
tests  to  which  the  pulpit  can  be  subjected.  An 
analysis  of  the  sources  of  power  in  his  preaching 
would  reveal  the  following  elements:  He  was  at 
home  in  the  ordinary  parish  sermon.  He  could 
rise  to  the  height  of  a  great  occasion.  He  could 
preach  with  equal  felicity  to  boys  in  the  Reform 
School  or  to  students  in  the  university.     He  was 

^  Besides  these,  two  preached  during  the  financial  crisis  of 
1857,  entitled  Thoughts  on  the  Present  Distress,  were  pub- 
lished by  request. 

2  Sermons  to  the  Churches,  pp.  211-213. 


252  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

ready  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  so-called  "  re- 
vival seasons."  He  could  bring  ethical  truths  to 
bear  on  the  questions  of  the  day  with  the  same 
force. 

Unquestionably  this  varied  power  was  owing 
to  the  strength  and  depth  of  his  own  moral  na- 
ture. This  dominated  his  whole  being.  Hence 
whenever  he  spoke  on  such  themes,  the  whole 
man  was  roused.  His  intellect  was  in  full  play, 
his  emotions  were  excited,  his  sense  of  the  moral 
world  and  its  supremacy  possessed  him  utterly, 
and  gave  him  a  magnetic  hold  on  his  audience. 
Then,  too,  he  kept  a  steady  control  of  his  hear- 
ers by  the  masterly  analysis  of  his  subjects,  his 
clear  statements,  his  freedom  from  all  rhetor- 
ical deviations  or  circumlocutions,  his  apt  illus- 
trations, his  Saxon  speech,  his  concise  reasoning. 
With  him  everything  was  practical  in  the  best 
sense  of  that  word.  He  never  speculated  any- 
where, least  of  all  in  the  pulpit.  His  doctrinal 
sermons  are  among  his  most  practical.  Compare 
those  on  "  The  Fall  of  Man  "  with  that  remarka- 
ble discourse  on  a  "  Day  in  the  Life  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,"  and  the  balance  of  practical  teaching 
will  be  found  in  favor  of  the  former. 

To  all  this  must  be  added  the  effect  of  his 
personal  presence.  No  stranger  could  have  seen 
him  rise  in  the  pulpit  to  begin  the  service  with- 
out being  impressed  with  the  singular  majesty 


DR.   WAY  LAND  A8  A  PREACHER.  253 

of  that  presence,  specially  in  later  years,  wlien 
the  angular  frame  had  filled  out  to  its  full  and 
noble  proportions.  The  brow,  the  eye,  the  swar- 
thy complexion,  were  Websterian.  The  voice 
was  deep  and  solemn  in  its  tones.  There  was 
little  or  no  gesture.  There  was  no  elocution  save 
that  of  deep  feeling.  But  everything  in  the 
make-up  of  that  wonderful  figure,  the  head,  the 
brow,  the  deep-set  eye,  the  massive  frame,  the 
awe  in  his  voice  as  he  began  the  invocation, 
blended  to  make  his  presence  one  of  power  in 
itself.  It  made  its  own  impression  at  once,  and 
everything  thenceforward  deepened  it ;  his  man- 
ner of  reading  the  Scriptures,  so  impressive  al- 
ways, so  full  of  interpretative  aid  as  his  tones 
varied  with  the  different  meanings ;  his  prayers 
so  richly  spiritual,  so  child-like,  so  earnest ;  and 
lastly  the  sermon,  when  he  brought  into  play 
the  qualities  already  named  with  all  their  effec- 
tiveness, no  one  ever  heard  him  at  such  times 
without  confessing  the  power  of  a  great  religious 
teacher. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DR.   WAYLAND  AS  A   PHILANTHROPIST  AND 
CITIZEN. 

That  philanthropy  is  assuming  its  rightful 
place  in  the  thoughts  of  American  citizens  is  no 
doubt  true.  Progress  in  this  direction  has  for 
years  been  conspicuous.  Its  range  has  been 
broadened,  its  methods  have  become  enlightened, 
its  motives  recognized  and  felt,  its  successes 
established.  The  case  was  far  different  when 
Dr.  Wayland  entered  on  his  career.  The  phil- 
anthropic spirit  needed  awakening.  Philan- 
thropic movements  were  not  begun,  or  were 
inefficiently  directed,  which  since  have  accom- 
plished brilliant  results  in  bettering  the  condition 
of  the  wretched  and  suffering,  in  checking  social 
evils,  in  promoting  human  welfare.  It  is  not 
claiming  too  much  to  say  that  he  was  a  pioneer  in 
this  direction.  This  feature  of  his  character  was 
largely  owing  to  influences  exerted  on  his  child- 
hood by  his  mother.  From  her  he  had  learned 
abhorrence  of  every  form  of  human  oppression. 
From  her,  too,  he  had  learned  to  sympathize  with 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    265 

the  efforts  made  for  all  forms  of  human  advance- 
ment. It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  his  philan- 
thropy was  shaped  and  colored  by  distinctively 
Christian  views.  Its  foundations  he  recognized  as 
laid  in  the  Christian  religion.  Its  motives  were 
drawn  from  the  same  source.  It  was  fortified  by 
his  studies  in  Moral  Science  and  further  by  those 
in  Political  Economy.  If  it  had  any  one  feature 
more  salient  than  the  rest  it  was  his  insistence 
upon  individual,  as  contrasted  with  associated, 
philanthropy.  He  came  in  later  years  to  distrust 
the  tendency  manifest  in  the  multiplication  of 
organizations.  He  never  hesitated  to  avow  his 
dissent  from  what  he  considered  the  mistakes  of 
such  organizations.  He  thought  that  reliance  on 
these  dwarfed  the  sense  of  individual  responsi- 
bility. This  was  to  him  the  foremost  element  in 
all  moral  success.  No  man  was  earlier  than  he 
in  advocating  the  cause  of  temperance.  No  man 
ever  stood  more  firmly  in  that  advocacy.  Yet 
he  did  not  hesitate,  in  his  work  on  the  "Limita- 
tions of  Human  Responsibility,"  to  indicate 
views  on  the  subject  of  pledges  to  total  absti- 
nence different  from  those  urged  with  so  much 
pertinacity  by  temperance  reformers.  From  the 
beginning,  he  took  the  highest  ground  on  the 
wrongfulness  of  the  system  of  slavery  in  the 
South.  Yet  in  his  first  letter  to  Dr.  Richard 
Fuller,  he  said,  "  I  unite  with  you  and  the  late 


266  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

lamented  Dr.  Channiiig  in  the  opinion  that  the 
tone  of  the  Abolitionists  at  the  North  has  been 
frequently,  I  fear  I  must  say  generally,  fierce, 
bitter,  and  abusive.  The  abolition  press  has, 
I  believe,  from  the  beginning  too  commonly  in- 
dulged in  exaggerated  statement,  in  violent  de- 
nunciation, and  in  coarse  and  lacerating  invec- 
tive." 1  He  was  by  no  means  insensible  to  the 
advantage  of  associated  effort,  was  ready  to 
organize  movements  in  any  direction  which 
promised  healthy  promotion  of  humane  objects. 
But  he  was  their  best  friend,  because  he  was 
their  candid  friend,  never  carried  away  by 
enthusiasm,  nor  controlled  by  mere  sentiment, 
pointing  out  their  possible  dangers,  and  insisting 
on  the  point,  that  they  could  wisely  live  and 
grow  only  as  the  prior  and  fundamental  fact  of 
individual  benevolence  and  benevolent  activity 
was  fully  acknowledged. 

Nor  was  his  philanthropy  addicted  in  the  least 
to  hobbies.  The  singular  breadth  of  his  interest 
in  charities  can  only  be  seen  by  a  review  of  his 
philanthropic  work.  This  started  in  his  bold 
and  brilliant  appeal  for  the  missionary  enterprise 

1  It  is  however  only  just  to  say  that  had  Dr.  Wayland  lived 
to  see  the  work  of  emancipation  fully  accomplished  by  the 
terrible  agency  of  civil  war,  and  after  the  stormy  passions  of 
the  long  antislavery  struggle  had  fully  subsided,  no  man 
would  have  sooner  recognized  the  merits  of  these  abolitionists 
and  as  emphatically  as  he  had  once  condemned  their  faults. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    257 

in  his  well-known  Missionary  Discourse.  The 
change  of  his  sphere  of  labor  from  a  Boston 
pulpit  to  the  presidency  of  Brown  University 
resulted  in  no  change  in  the  workings  of  his  phil- 
anthropic spirit.  He  found  on  coming  to  Provi- 
dence that  his  first  work  in  the  promotion  of 
benevolence  must  be  to  awaken  the  people  to 
some  comprehension  of  demands  upon  them 
which  ought  to  be  recognized.  They  were  con- 
tracted in  their  views  rather  than  indifferent  or 
mean.  They  needed  and  they  welcomed  his 
enlightenment  of  their  ignorance.  He  availed 
himself  of  every  opportunity,  in  public  and  in 
private,  to  disseminate  throughout  the  commu- 
nity correct  views  upon  the  subject.  His  voice 
and  purse  and  pen  were  ever  at  the  service  of 
any  meritorious  public  enterprise.^  Local  chari- 
ties, such  as  the  Rhode  Island  Bible  Society,  the 
"Tract  and  School  Society,"  an  organization 
designed  to  establish  schools  for  the  poor  in  all 
parts  of  the  State,  the  "  Providence  Dispensary," 
were  the  first  objects  on  which  he  concentrated 
his  efforts.  On  the  20th  of  October,  1831,  he 
gave  an  address  before  the  Providence  Temper- 
ance Society.  That  address,  subsequently  pub- 
lished in  his  volume  of  Discourses,  had  an  influ- 
ence far  outside  its  mere  local  surroundings.  It 
was  occasioned  in  part  by  a  drunken  riot  in  the 
^  Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  334. 


258  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

suburbs  of  Providence,  resulting  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  several  buildings  and  the  loss  of  several 
lives.  Of  this  incident  the  address  made  skill- 
ful use.  But  its  power  was  resident  in  its  calm, 
well  reasoned,  moral  appeals,  its  high  and  unas- 
sailable reasonings.  It  took  its  place  at  once 
as  a  tocsin  of  righteous  alarm  at  the  dangers 
threatening  society  by  the  unchecked  growth  of 
intemperance ;  and  in  the  days  when  few  such 
appeals  came  from  the  high  places  of  learning, 
he  lent  the  influence  of  his  position  to  the  then 
struggling  cause  of  temperance  reform.  It 
was  in  this  reform  that  Dr.  Wayland  urged 
most  strenuously  the  importance  of  individual 
effort.  He  exalted  this  above  legislation.  In 
fact  he  had  grave  doubts  on  the  efficiency  of 
some  modern  legislative  expedients.  To  a 
clergyman  he  wrote  in  1860,  when  the  Maine 
prohibitory  law  was  attracting  wide  attention, 
"I  am  much  perplexed  about  the  Maine  law 
question,  and  do  not  see  my  way  clear.  All  our 
efforts  thus  far  seem  failures,  and  I  fear  we  are 
working  on  the  wrong  track.  What  is  the  use  of 
trying  to  punish  Irishmen  for  selling  liquor,  when 
mayors,  judges,  and  the  highest  men  in  social 
standing  make  people  drunk  at  parties  ?  No  law 
can  be  effective  which  does  not  strike  all  alike. 
The  'rummies'  (I  mean  the  poor  ones)  have 
the  best  of  the  argument.     I  do  not  know  what 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN,    259 

to  do.  Church  members  are  as  much  in  the 
wrong  as  others.  In  such  cases  what  can  law 
effect  ?     Hence  I  doubt." 

But  he  never  wavered  in  his  insistence  on  the 
duty  of  individual  effort  nor  in  his  faith  in  the 
power  of  personal  appeal.  Having  heard  of  a 
notorious  saloon  keeper  in  Providence,  whose 
saloon  was  the  centre  of  attraction  and  conse- 
quent ruin  to  a  number  of  young  men,  he 
determined  to  have  an  interview  with  its  pro- 
prietor and  lay  before  him  an  earnest  argument 
against  his  calling.  For  a  long  time  all  his 
efforts  to  gain  such  an  interview  were  baffled. 
At  last,  however,  the  two  met.  Dr.  Wayland 
used  all  his  power  of  argument.  It  was  not  lost. 
Argument  convinced,  and  appeal  influenced  the 
man.  He  abandoned  his  traffic,  and  became 
a  changed  man  in  character. 

When  tidings  reached  this  country  of  any  wide- 
spread suffering  in  other  lands,  it  was  eminently 
characteristic  of  Dr.  Wayland  that  he  at  once 
assumed  leadership  in  attempts  at  relief.  These 
were  in  his  view  not  simply  opportunities  for  the 
exercise  of  charity,  —  for  the  cultivation  of  hu- 
mane sympathies.  They  were  opportunities  for 
strengthening  the  bond  of  human  brotherhood. 
They  were  the  offset  to  war  as  a  devastating 
agent.  They  were  the  golden  occasions  for 
Christian  philanthropy,  bringing   nations   more 


260  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

closely  together.  The  international  importance 
of  liberal  responses  to  all  such  appeals  for  help 
was  uppermost  in  his  mind.  He  believed  in 
their  educating  power  upon  the  world,  and  hence 
threw  his  whole  soul  into  their  promotion.  One 
such  occasion  was  furnished  in  the  Irish  famine. 
He  wrote  his  sister,  ...•■'  This  morning  I  have 
been  out  in  behalf  of  the  Irish.  In  less  than 
two  hours  we  raised  here  sixteen  hundred  dollars. 
We  hope  to  increase  it  to  seven  thousand 
dollars,  and  send  it  by  the  next  steamer.  The 
amount  received  by  Great  Britain  from  this 
country  will  be  large,  and  I  hope  it  will  set  a 
new  example  of  national  intercourse.  It  is  noble 
to  see  such  efforts  in  behalf  of  humanit}^,  for  the 
sake  of  Christ,  and  even  for  the  sake  of  general 
benevolence.  It  shows  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
is  influencing  nations.  It  is  a  bright  spot  in 
the  darkness  that  in  many  directions  seems  so 
closely  to  envelop  us." 

Another  such  occasion  was  the  massacre  of 
the  Syrian  Christians  by  the  Druses  in  1860. 
He  stepped  forward  at  once  to  organize  among 
the  citizens  of  Providence  plans  for  relief.  He 
began  a  correspondence  with  Rev.  Dr.  Ander- 
son, of  the  American  Board  of  Missions,  as  to 
the  best  method.  Apparently  the  committee 
having  the  matter  in  charge  moved  too  slowly 
to  suit  his  more  eager  spirit,  for  after  a  few 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.     261 

days  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Anderson  again  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  I  wish  you  would  use  the  inclosed  8 in 

such  manner  as  will  do  the  most  good  to  the 
Syrian  sufferers.  I  cannot  wait  for  our  com- 
mittee." 

He  was  an  early  opponent  of  indiscriminate 
charity,  an  early  advocate  of  methods  of  relief 
which  leave  the  self-respect  of  the  poor  un- 
harmed. The  "  poor  laws "  of  England,  the 
"  soup  -  house  systems,"  had  been  subjects  of  his 
study.  He  anticipated  many  of  the  conclusions 
reached  and  urged  by  the  modern  students  of 
social  science  on  this  subject.  In  the  year  1857, 
when,  in  consequence  of  the  financial  panic,  la- 
bor found  no  employment,  and  suffering  among 
the  working  classes  was  widespread,  "  he  origi- 
nated the  conception  of  the  Providence  Aid  So- 
ciety, whose  main  design  was  to  supply  work  to 
the  destitute  by  opening  an  office,  where  all 
needing  employment,  and  those  able  to  furnish 
employment,  could  be  brought  together."  Dur- 
ing his  lifetime  he  remained  at  the  head  of  this 
organization,  which  has  had  since  its  institution 
many  imitators  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  In 
local  charities  like  this,  also  the  Butler  Hospital 
for  the  Insane  and  the  Rhode  Island  Hospital,  his 
philanthropy  was  conspicuous,  alike  in  the  time 
and  labor  spent  upon  their  boards,  and  in  active 


262  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

efforts  to  secure  their  efficiency.  .The  Annual 
Report  of  the  Butler  Hospital  for  1865,  in  a  dis- 
criminating notice  of  his  death,  takes  occasion  to 
"  testify  to  his  remarkable  individual  exertions 
to  promote  the  end  sought  to  be  attained  "  in 
that  and  other  institutions,  whose  object  was  the 
relief  of  human  suffering.  He  had  a  fine  con- 
tempt for  a  species  of  professional  philanthropy, 
eloquent  upon  platforms,  discoursing  of  human 
wrongs  and  human  wretchedness  with  sentimen- 
tal appeals  and  voluble  denunciation,  but  which 
only  made  this  a  matter  of  speech-making  or 
worse,  a  sort  of  capital  for  popularity.  His 
deeds  went  with  his  words,  went  before  his  words 
often,  and  of  no  man  could  it  be  more  truly  said 
that  his  philanthropy  was  that  of  common  sense 
as  well  as  common  humanity.  He  had  studied 
with  care  the  lives  of  such  philanthropists  as 
John  Howard,  Caroline  Fry,  and  George  Miil- 
ler.i  That  in  them  which  most  impressed  and 
moved  him  was  the  self-denying,  individual  la- 
bors they  had  put  forth.  He  never  wearied  of 
referring  to  them  in  his  class  room  and  from  the 
pulpit.  He  had  studied  the  career  of  John 
Howard,  as  thoroughly  as  he  had  that  of  Lord 
Erskine  and  Napoleon  I.  There  was  in  it  an 
element  of  the  morally  heroic  which  stirred  his 
nature  to  its  depths. 

^  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  259. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    263 

The  two  spheres  in  which  his  philanthropic 
spirit  was  most  conspicuonsly  shown  were,  op- 
position to  American  slavery,  and  efforts  for 
ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  criminal  classes. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  presidency,  he  had 
taught  his  classes  a  doctrine  of  human  rights, 
which  would  cut  up  by  the  roots  all  forms  of  hu- 
man bondage.  The  publication  of  his  "  Moral 
Science  "  gave  him  a  national  reputation  along 
this  line  of  philanthropic  effort.  In  the  year 
1844,  he  held  through  the  columns  of  the  "  Chris- 
tian Reflector  "  a  prolonged  debate  with  Rev.  Dr. 
Richard  Fuller,  of  Baltimore,  on  the  system  of 
domestic  slavery  in  the  South.  The  discussion 
was  occasioned  by  Dr.  Fuller's  animadversions 
on  that  part  of  Dr.  Wayland's  "  Moral  Science  " 
which  treated  of  the  New  Testament  view  of 
slavery.^  The  position  held  by  Dr.  Fuller  was 
that  the  Bible  sanctioned  slavery,  could  be  ap- 
pealed to  as  authority  for  maintenance  of  the 
system  in  the  South,  apart  from  the  acknow- 
ledged abuses.  It  was  an  instance  of  the  change 
which  had  come  over  the  South,  change  from  a 
tone  of  apology  to  that  of  defense,  of  tolerance 
for  a  time  to  assertion  of  inherent  good  in  the 
system  justifying  its  perpetuation  and  extension. 

Dr.  Wayland  was  averse  to  controversy.  He 
had  no  desire  to  appear  on  the  arena  of  a  public 
1  Fuller  and  Wayland.  on  Domestic  Slavery,  pp.  4,  5. 


264  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

debate,  sure  to  arrest  attention  as  a  contest  be- 
tween champions.  He  was  not  polemic.  For 
theological  controversies  he  had  a  rooted  dislike. 
But  he  saw  that  he  could  not  keep  silent  in  this 
emergency.  He  took  up  the  gage  Dr.  Fuller 
had  flung  down.  The  debate  centred  around 
the  question  of  Scriptural  authority  for  South- 
ern slavery.  He  entered  on  it  with  solemn 
prayer  to  Almighty  God  and  with  high  intent 
for  Christian  philanthropy.^ 

Two  things  were  accomplished  by  him.  First, 
he  made  a  noble  defense  of  the  Scriptures  from 
the  claim  that  they  furnished  a  legitimate 
ground  for  the  system  of  slavery  at  the  South. 
Secondly,  he  gave  the  rising  antislavery  senti- 
ment of  the  North  new  impetus  and  more  intel- 
ligent basis.  The  debate,  a  model  of  Christian 
courtesy  between  the  two  disputants,  attracted 
wide  attention  in  its  day.  It  was  only  one  more 
public  event  which  educated,  as  it  developed,  the 
antislavery  sentiment  of  the  North. 

It  was,  however,  in  connection  with  the  crimi- 
nal classes  that  his  philanthropy  was  most  strik- 
ingly manifest.  He  was  for  many  years  Presi- 
dent of  the  Prison  Discipline  Society.  He  had 
been  too  close  a  student  of  political  economy, 
too  close  an  observer  of  the  working  of  our 
social  systems,  too  well  read  in  statistics  of 
^  Memoir  J  vol.  ii.  p.  57. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.     265 

crime,  not  to  bring  his  philanthropy  to  bear  on 
the  knotty  problem,  the  "  reformation  of  con- 
victs." That  chapter  in  his  life  ^  which  reveals 
his  personal  efforts  in  this  direction  may  well  be 
considered  one  of  its  most  remarkable  features. 
It  can  here  be  only  briefly  told.  In  the  year 
1851,  the  governor  of  the  State  offered  him  a 
place  on  the  board  of  Inspectors  of  the  State 
Prison  and  the  Providence  County  Jail.  His 
first  question,  after  receiving  the  offer,  was 
''whether  any  salary  attached  to  the  office." 
Assured  that  the  labor  connected  with  it  was 
wholly  gratuitous,  the  appointment  was  promptly 
accepted.  He  was  made  chairman  of  the  board, 
and  on  him  for  many  years  was  devolved  the 
duty  of  preparing  the  annual  report.  Those  re- 
ports contain  a  striking  history  of  prison  reform. 
They  also  disclose  a  remarkable  amount  of  work, 
of  wise,  unflinching  investigation,  of  successful 
undertaking.  At  the  time  when  Dr.  Wayland 
entered  on  this  field  erf  labor,  and  it  was  when 
he  was  much  engrossed  with  the  plan  of  recon- 
struction for  the  college,  both  the  state  prison 
and  the  Providence  jail  were  a  burden  of  ex- 
pense to  the  State.  "  In  1846,  the  expense  ex- 
ceeded the  revenue  by  17,563;  in  1848,  by 
i5,462.  In  addition  to  this  the  state  prison 
was  built  on  a  plan  which  admitted  of  no  venti- 
1  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  pp.  339-351. 


266  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

lation,  no  warmth,  no  proper  lighting.  The  air 
was  as  foul  as  that  of  Newgate  in  the  time  of  De 
Foe.  The  natural  results  followed.  Disease  was 
common  and  malignant  in  its  type.  There  was 
no  hospital  for  the  sick.  The  cells  were  occupied 
by  more  than  one  inmate,  in  some  instances  by 
more  than  two.  There  was  no  prison  library. 
There  was  no  chapel.  "  The  female  convicts, 
from  ten  to  twenty  in  number,  were  crowded 
into  two  or  three  cells.^  And  what  was  true  of 
the  state  prison  was  only  more  horribly  true  of 
the  county  jail. 

The  new  board  of  inspection,  with  Dr.  Way- 
land  at  its  head  and  as  its  guiding  spirit,  en- 
tered at  once  on  a  work  of  thorough  reform. 
Better  accommodations  for  the  prisoners  were  at 
once  secured.  A  library  for  the  convicts  was 
obtained.  A  hospital  also  was  provided.  The 
labor  of  the  prisoners  in  state  prison  and  jail 
by  the  year  1862  more  than  paid  the  expenses 
of  both.  A  chapel  for*  religious  worship  was 
built.  The  moral  character  of  the  prisoners  im- 
proved. In  short,  Dr.  Wayland  and  his  asso- 
ciates had  effected  a  thorough  reformation  of 
the  abuses  which  had  long  prevailed  in  the 
prison   administration.     The   amount   of   effort 

1  In  each  of  the  small  cells  (in  the  county  jail),  ten  feet  by 
twelve,  six  or  eight  females  were  confined  night  and  day. 
Memoir^  vol.  ii.  p.  342. 


AS  A   PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    267 

which  he  gave  to  this  object  was  enormous.  In 
dealing  with  the  legislature  the  weight  of  his 
name  was  enough  to  secure  all  needed  cooper- 
ation. There  was  no  period  of  his  life  which 
was  more  exacting  of  toil  in  his  presidential 
office  than  the  years  from  1850-56,  and  yet 
these  were  the  years  in  which  he  undertook  the 
work  of  prison  reform.  Nor  have  we  reached 
any  adequate  idea  of  what  these  labors  were  till 
we  consider  the  unofficial  work  he  performed 
for  the  religious  welfare  of  the  inmates  of  the 
prison.  He  preached  often  to  them  on  Sunday. 
He  was  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school 
established  for  the  convicts,  and  taught  a  class 
in  it.  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  in  storm  or  shine, 
he  was  to  be  seen  wending  his  way  to  the  prison, 
to  gather  that  class  around  him,  and  to  unfold 
to  them  in  his  plain,  impressive,  fitting  way  the 
religion  of  Jesus.  He  was  a  fellow-worshiper 
with  the  convicts  in  the  prison  chapel  by  choice, 
till  he  assumed  temporarily  the  pastorate  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church.  Some  of  his  comments  in 
this  connection  are  very  characteristic.  To  the 
chaplain  of  the  prison  he  said  more  than  once, 
"I  never  enjoyed  religious  worship  more  than 
in  this  place  and  with  this  congregation."  On 
another  occasion  he  remarked,  "  If  the  Saviour 
were  to  visit  the  city  of  Providence,  I  do  not 
know  any  place  where  He  would  be  more  likely 


268  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

to  be  found  than  here."  Of  his  Bible  class,  he 
said,  "  I  love  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  these  poor 
fellows  in  all  its  precious  promises.  How 
adapted  it  is  to  meet  the  wants  of  just  such 
men  !  "  No  wonder  that  when  the  chaplain  of 
the  state  prison  on  the  Sunday  morning  after 
his  death,  said  to  the  convicts  gathered  in  the 
chapel,  "  You  will  never  see  your  friend  Dr. 
Wayland  again ;  he  is  dead,"  he  was  answered 
by  their  sobs. 

He  had  no  official  relations  with  the  Provi- 
dence Reform  School.  But  these  in  his  case 
were  not  needful  to  elicit  from  him  a  hearty  co- 
operation in  its  objects.  He  was  a  weekly  vis- 
itor there  "  for  a  long  time,"  we  are  told,  knew 
personally  each  of  the  boys,  and  understood  his 
disposition,  his  temptations,  and  his  history.  It 
was  an  audience  he  loved  to  speak  to,  and  an 
audience  which  delighted  to  hear  him.  He  had 
no  clap-trap  methods  of  gaining  their  attention. 
He  never  resorted  to  story-telling  as  a  device  to 
insure  a  hearing.  It  was  the  simplest  of  con- 
versations with  them  rather  than  set  speech. 
And  when  the  boys  were  asked, ''  Whom  do  you 
want  to  have  speak  to  you?"  the  two  names  most 
often  mentioned  were  Gilbert  Congdon  (a  min- 
ister among  the  Quakers)  and  Dr.  Wayland. 
"I  once,"  said  the  gentleman  who  had  charge 
of  securing  the  Sunday  address,  "engaged  two 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    269 

young  gentlemen  to  speak,  and  also  Dr.  Way- 
land.  The  day  proved  frightful.  There  was  a 
foot  of  snow  on  the  ground ;  it  had  been  and 
still  was  raining.  The  snow  was  all  slush.  The 
two  young  gentlemen  did  not  appear,  but,  punc- 
tual to  the  hour,  there  was  Dr.  Wayland."  He 
knew  his  audience  would  be  waiting  for  him, 
and  he  would  not  disappoint  them. 

When  Dr.  Caswell  spoke  of  President  Way- 
land  in  happy  phrase  as  the  "  first  citizen  of 
Rhode  Island,"  he  indicated  what  was  a  promi- 
nent  feature  of  his  career.  Citizenship  in  Dr, 
Wayland's  view  was  invested  with  sacred  respon- 
sibilities. Though  not  widely  read  in  history  he 
had  thought  much  and  deeply  on  the  subject.  He 
was  ever  a  watchful  observer  of  current  events, 
especially  in  their  moral  and  intellectual  bear- 
ings. He  believed  profoundly  that  educated 
men  held  special  trusts  in  the  development  of 
our  republican  institutions.  He  never  took  ref- 
uge in  scholastic  pursuits  as  absolving  him  from 
active  participation  in  the  duties  of  a  citizen. 
All  this  is  foreshadowed  in  his  sermons  on  the 
duties  of  an  American  citizen,  preached  in  Bos- 
ton in  1825.  His  earlier  political  training  had 
been  in  sympathy  with  the  Republicans,  then 
dividing  political  control  of  the  country  with  the 
Federalists,  on  the  grounds  commonly  held  by 
Baptists  in  those   days:    that   the   Republican 


270  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

party  was  more  favorable  than  the  Federal- 
ist to  unrestricted  freedom  in  matters  of  re- 
ligious opinion.^  This  view  in  general  shaped 
his  whole  subsequent '  career.  On  coming  to 
Rhode  Island,  he  found  himself  in  ardent  sym- 
pathy with  Roger  Williams's  doctrine  of  "  soul 
liberty."  He  loved  all  the  early  traditions  of 
Rhode  Island  history.  He  was,  by  adoption 
only,  a  Rhode  Islander;  and  yet  no  native  of 
her  soil  ever  had  a  greater  pride  in  his  State, 
nor  a  more  constant  devotion  to  her  welfare. 
Holding  such  views  on  the  responsibilities  of 
citizenship,  every  crisis  in  state  or  national  af- 
fairs brought  him  forward  as  an  active  citizen. 
He  wrote  or  he  spoke  in  order  to  mould  a  right 
public  sentiment.  He  could  face  temporary  un- 
popularity, or  the  abuse  of  partisan  journals, 
with  a  calm  front.  These  things  never  got  him 
out  of  temper,  never  seemed  to  sway  him  in  the 
slightest  toward  any  more  pr.onounced  opposi- 
tion than  his  convictions  had  already  predeter- 
mined. 

What  is  known  as  the  Dorr  War,  or  the 
Rhode  Island  Rebellion,  occurred  in  1842.  It 
was  the  violent  and  anarchical  termination  of 
what  had  been  a  long  struggle  in  Rhode  Island 
politics.  It  w^as  an  attempt  to  overthrow  the 
existing   government   by  force.     We   find  Dr. 

^  Reminiscences ;  Memoir,  vol.  i.  p.  14. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND    CITIZEN.    271 

Wayland  heading  the  party  of  "  law  and  order." 
On  the  first  Sunday  after  the  suppression  of  the 
outbreak,  he  preached  his  well-known  discourse 
on  the  "Affairs  of  Rhode  Island,"  and  on  the 
day  of  Thanksgiving  appointed  by  the  state 
authorities  followed  up  his  previous  teachings 
by  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  "  duty  of  the  citi- 
zen to  the  commonwealth."  He  was  made  the 
target  for  virulent  shafts  from  the  party  of  re- 
volt. They  never  ruffled  him  into  one  angry 
word  by  way  of  reply.  He  had  shown  what 
loyalty  to  existing  institutions  means  both  by 
example  and  precept.  He  never  allowed  his 
position  as  president  of  the  college  to  nullify 
his  active  citizenship  in  the  State. 

Two  years  later  he  wrote  articles  on  the  Debts 
of  the  States  for  two  of  the  leading  reviews,  the 
"  North  American  "  and  the  "  Christian  Review." 
Repudiation  had  become  a  matter  of  wide  dis- 
cussion. Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  Mississippi, 
and  Louisiana  in  one  form  or  another  had  repu- 
diated their  obligations.  Foreign  creditors,  like 
Sydney  Smith,  were  furious,  and  hurled  every 
shaft  of  invective  or  sarcasm  at  Republican  in- 
stitutions. The  irritation  was  widespread  at 
home  as  well  as  abroad.  It  was  to  hold  up  the 
standard  of  financial  honor,  and  so  to  allay  this 
irritation,  that  President  Wayland  prepared  with 
great   care  these   papers  on  the    Debts  of  the 


272  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

States.  The  article  in  the  "  North  American  Re- 
view "  1  for  January,  1844,  is  a  thorough  discus- 
sion of  the  whole  subject  in  all  its  bearings.  In 
its  opening  sentences,  the  author  says,  "  Dis- 
grace has  fallen  upon  the  people  of  this  country 
in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world,  and  it  becomes 
us  to  inquire  how  far  we  deserve  it,  how  far  it 
is  unmerited,  by  what  means  we  can  justly  re- 
lieve ourselves  from  it,  and  what  are  to  be  the 
consequences  of  our  continuing  in  the  wrong. 
We  believe  that  some  injustice  has  been  done 
by  public  opinion,  and  some  needless  alarm  felt 
by  those  most  directly  interested,  either  through 
ignorance  of  the  facts,  or  because  they  have  been 
considered  only  in  a  hurried  and  imperfect  man- 
ner. We  have  no  doubt  also  that  evil  princi- 
ples have  been  disseminated,  and  false  ideas  of 
duty  and  policy  presented  to  the  people,  in  con- 
nection with  this  interesting  subject,  and  that 
these  can  be  effectually  exposed  only  by  discus- 
sion. We  propose,  therefore,  to  state  the  facts, 
as  we  suppose  they  really  exist,  and  to  examine 
some  of  the  principles  connected  with  the  sub- 
ject." Aside  from  all  the  merit  which  the  article 
possesses  as  a  discussion  of  the  subject  in  hand, 
it  is  a  model  of  reasoning  on  such  themes,  and 
is  perhaps  the  best  specimen  of  Dr.  Wayland's 
contributions  to  our  periodical  literature. 
iVol.  Ixviii.  pp.  109-157. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    273 

The  annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  consequent 
Mexican  war,  brought  him  into  still  greater 
prominence  in  connection  with  politics.  To  both 
these  measures  he  was  inflexibly  opposed.  The 
one  he  regarded  as  utterly  needless  to  a  nation 
already  possessed  of  more  territory  than  it  could 
profitably  occupy,  calculated  to  involve  us  in 
war,  and  above  all  tending  to  increase  the  ex- 
tent and  ^ower  of  slavery.^  The  other  he  op- 
posed on  the  highest  grounds,  —  public  morality, 
the  interests  of  justice  and  humanity.  It  seemed 
to  him  simply  a  national  wickedness.  For  all 
such  wars  he  had  the  highest  abhorrence,  and  in 
his  view  patriotism  demanded  loud  and  indig- 
nant protests  against  their  prosecution  rather 
than  any  support  urged  on  grounds  of  political 
expediency  or  supposed  national  honor.  He 
characterized  the  Mexican  war  as  "  ah  origine, 
wicked,  infamous,  unconstitutional  in  design,  and 
stupid  and  shockingly  depraved  in  its  manage- 
ment." The  sermons  on  "  Obedience  to  the 
Civil  Magistrate  "2  were  preached  in  order  to 
rouse  the  moral  sense  of  the  nation.  "  I  never," 
he  wrote  to  his  sister,  "  felt  more  anxious  about 

^  Memoir,  vol.  ii.  p.  55,  note.  His  vote  for  Henry  Clay 
as  President  in  1844,  as  a  "  protest  against  the  annexation 
scheme,"  is  his  earliest  political  action  against  slavery  ;  all  his 
later  political  action  was  similarly  determined.  His  vote  was 
cast  in  1848  for  the  candidates  of  the  Buffalo  Convention. 

2  University  Sermons,  pp.  252-293. 


274  FRANCIS  WAY  LAND. 

anything  I  have  published ;  not,  I  trust,  on  my 
own  account  (for  necessity  was  laid  upon  me, 
and  I  could  not  but  bear  my  testimony),  but  on 
account  of  my  country." 

The  principles  laid  down  by  him  in  these  ser- 
mons were  again  reaffirmed  in  the  case  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850.  He  was  known  as 
the  outspoken  opponent  of  this  law.  "  I  have 
always  declared,"  he  said  in  a  letter  to  a  clergy- 
man, "  that  1  would  never  aid  in  arresting  a  fu- 
gitive, or  do  a  thing  to  return  him  to  slavery.  I 
would  make  no  opposition  to  the  government, 
but  I  would  patiently  endure  the  penalty.  This 
I  have  a  right  to  do,  on  the  principle  that  I  must 
obey  God  rather  than  man."  A  fugitive  slave 
having^  been  sent  with  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
him.  Dr.  Wayland  clothed  him,  housed  him,  and 
gave  him  money.  He  was  active  in  resistance 
to  all  the  means  used  for  extending  the  domain 
of  slavery.  He  addressed  the  citizens  of  Provi- 
dence on  the  occasion  of  the  passage  of  the  Ne- 
braska Bill.  He  again  addressed  them  on  the 
occasion  of  the  assault  upon  Charles  Sumner. 
He  supported  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 
party  for  the  Presidency  in  1 856,  and  when  the 
war  for  the  Union  broke  out,  he  was  found  its 
most  ardent  supporter.  No  doctrinaire  views  on 
the  subject  of  war  were  allowed  to  obstruct  his 
course  then.    In  every  way  open  to  him,  he  aided 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND  CITIZEN.    275 

the  movement  of  the  North  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  government. 

While,  however,  he  insisted  strenuously  on  the 
active  discharge  of  all  the  duties  of  citizenship, 
and  while  he  himself  in  his  own  way  strove  to 
fulfill  these,  he  always  maintained  the  position  of 
an  independent  in  politics.  Right  or  wrong,  his 
belief  here  was  founded  on  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  cultivating  in  citizenship,  as  in  ecclesi- 
asticism,  the  sense  of  individual  responsibility.  If 
he  adopted  as  one  moral  axiom,  "  Every  man  has 
a  right  to  himself,"  and  made  it,  as  he  did,  the 
corner-stone  of  his  opposition  to  all  forms  of 
slavery,  he  adopted  as  its  correlate  the  view  that 
"  Every  man  has  his  own  responsibility  to  meet." 
He  was  not  blind  to  the  necessity  of  party  or- 
ganizations. He  believed  in  them,  acted  through 
them,  voted  with  them,  when  they  squared  with 
his  own  convictions.  Two  principles  led  him  al- 
ways, and  more  strongly  in  the  later  period  of  his 
life,  to  assert  the  duty  of  political  independence 
in  the  matter  of  party  policies.  He  had  a  hor- 
ror of  any  bondage.  He  disliked  a  party  whip 
as  he  detested  the  plantation  whip.  He  foresaw 
that  political  parties  in  a  republic  could  be  tyran- 
nical as  well  as  czars.  He  insisted,  therefore, 
that  the  due  check  upon  this  was  the  assertion 
of  independence,  especially  on  the  part  of  edu- 
cated men.     His  pupils  were  taught  that,  while 


276  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

there  was  a  doctrine  of  expediency,  which  wise 
men  would  not  hesitate  at  times  to  follow,  noth- 
ing could  save  this  doctrine  from  degenerat- 
ing into  the  worst  kind  of  time-serving,  but  a 
counter  assertion  of  political  independence  on 
which  party  ties  sat  not  too  loosely,  but  never  as 
a  yoke.  He  urged  with  even  more  force  the 
view  that  this  element  of  political  independence 
must  be  maintained  as  a  check  upon  party  ex- 
cesses or  party  corruption.  In  his  sermons  on 
"  Obedience  to  the  Civil  Magistrate  "  the  fol- 
lowing passage  indicates  his  view  :  ^  — 

"  To  all  this  I  know  it  will  be  answered  that 
there  are  never  more  than  two  political  parties  ; 
and  though  with  neither  can  a  good  man  har- 
monize, yet  he  must  unite  with  either  the  one  or 
the  other,  lest  his  influence  be  altogether  thrown 
away.  He  must,  therefore,  become  a  party  to 
much  that  is  wrong,  that  thus  he  may  accom- 
plish a  probable  good.  To  this  objection  our 
reply  must  be  brief.  It  declares  it  to  be  our 
duty  to  do  wrong  for  the  sake  of  attaining  a 
purpose  ;  or,  in  the  words  of  the  apostle,  *  to  do 
evil  that  good  may  come.'  This  is  its  simple 
and  obvious  meaning,  and  we  leave  it  to  the  con- 
demnation of  the  apostle.  But  besides  all  this, 
when  we  urge  such  a  plea,  we  seem  to  forget 
that  there  is  a  power  in  truth  and  rectitude, 

^  University  Sermons,  pp.  291,  292. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN    277 

which  wise  men  would  be  wiser  did  they  duly 
appreciate.  Let  the  moral  principle  of  this  coun- 
try only  find  an  utterance,  and  party  organiza- 
tions would  quail  before  its  rebuke.  How  often 
have  we  seen  a  combination,  insignificant  in 
point  of  numbers,  breaking  loose  from  the  tram- 
mels of  party,  and  uniting  in  the  support  of  a 
single  principle,  hold  the  balance  of  power  be- 
tween contending  parties,  and  wield  the  destinies 
of  either  at  its  will  !  Let  virtuous  men,  then, 
unite  on  the  ground  of  universal  moral  princi- 
ple, and  the  tyranny  of  party  will  be  crushed. 
Were  the  virtuous  men  of  this  country  to  carry 
their  moral  sentiments  into  practice,  and  act 
alone  rather  than  participate  in  the  doing  of 
wrong,  all  parties  would  from  necessity  submit 
to  their  authority,  and  the  acts  of  the  nation 
would  become  a  true  exponent  of  the  moral  char- 
acter of  our  people." 

This,  of  course,  is  political  idealism,  and  in  his 
time,  as  at  present,  not  in  high  repute  with  the 
active  politicians.  He  could  accept  a  doctrine 
of  expediency  on  occasion.  His  mind  was  too 
practical  to  be  doctrinaire  in  anything.  But  if 
it  be  political  idealism  to  be  entirely  indepen- 
dent of  all  party  ties,  ready  to  vote  with  the 
party  which  at  the  time  and  on  the  whole  rep- 
resents the  higher  political  morality,  he  was 
quite  ready  to  incur  the  reproach  of  being  a 


278  FRANCIS   WAYLANB. 

political  idealist.  His  hour  of  triumph  came  in 
the  great  crises,  like  that  of  the  assassination 
of  President  Lincoln,  when  political  party  ties 
seemed  petty  things,  and  when  the  whole  com- 
munity sought  his  counsels  and  his  support. 

Any  just  estimate  of  Dr.  Wayland's  life  and 
work  must  be  founded  on  a  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  his  moral  nature  both  quickened  and 
controlled  his  intellectual  development.  From 
the  moment  of  that  mental  regeneration  of 
which  he  speaks  in  his  Reminiscences,  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  his  intellectual  activity  never 
seemed  a  thing  by  itself.  Whatever  forms  it 
assumed  were  chosen  and  inspired  by  this  sense 
of  duty.  Towards  the  close  of  his  career,  when 
public  and  official  positions  were  laid  aside,  it 
asserted  itself  full  as  vigorously  as  when  he  was 
immersed  in  the  responsibilities  of  the  pastorate 
or  the  presidency  of  the  college.  He  took  no 
lengthened  recreation.  Vacations  were  to  him 
only  new  opportunities  for  labor.  He  says  that 
he  had  never  learned  how  to  recreate  himself. 
His  life  was  one  long  strenuous  endeavor,  un- 
broken by  any  rests,  to  do  his  appointed  work. 
The  European  trip  is  the  solitary  exception  to 
this,  and  his  weariness  of  it  only  proves  the 
rule.  Probably  this  unbroken  toil  shortened 
his  days.     But  who  shall  say  that  he  could  have 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    279 

accomplished  more  in  any  other  way,  —  to  quote 
his  often  repeated  phrase,  "  I  am  so  made,"  and 
the  workman  does  his  best  in  following  his  own 
bent.  At  all  events  this  is  the  key  to  a  true 
understanding  of  his  life  and  of  the  man  him- 
self. 

To  attempt  anything  like  an  analysis  or  por- 
traiture of  his  Christian  character  as  something 
apart  from  his  daily  work  would  be  a  mistake. 
Strono:  and  unwaverino^  as  was  his  intellectual 
persuasion  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  fervid 
and  deep  as  was  the  inner  life  which  corre- 
sponded to  his  faith  in  the  gospel  of  Christ,  he 
made  the  impress  of  his  Christian  life  on  the 
world  by  the  Christian  elements  in  his  daily  toil. 
Of  few  could  the  apostolic  saying  "to  me  to 
live  is  Christ "  hold  more  exactly  true  than 
of  Dr.  Wayland.  With  no  trace  of  the  mystic 
in  him,  it  was  yet  given  to  him  to  realize  a  com- 
munion with  God,  fully  as  deep  and  more  gen- 
uine than  any  of  which  mystics  have  rhapsodized. 
It  was  frequently  remarked  of  him  that  his 
Christian  life  was  "  simplicity  and  godly  sincer- 
ity." He  not  only  entered  the  kingdom  of  God 
as  a  little  child,  so  he  lived  and  toiled  in  it  to 
the  end.  This  gave  to  his  Christian  influence  a 
peculiar  attractive  force.  Men  of  the  world, 
business  men,  professional  men,  as  well  as  the 


280  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

student  body,  recognized  the  power  of  this 
"godly  sincerity."  The  whole  was  genuine. 
Nothing  was  perfunctory,  nothing  was  profes- 
sional, nothing  was  done  for  effect.  The  force 
of  a  great  sincerity  was  conspicuous  in  his  Chris- 
tian influence.  It  was  in  this  sphere  that  the 
tenderer,  softer  sides  of  his  nature,  originally 
imperious  and  reserved,  came  out.  We  have 
already  seen  that  he  was  a  Baptist  by  the  deep- 
est conviction.  His  love  for  the  church  of  his 
fathers  deepened  to  the  last.  His  attachment 
to  Baptist  tenets  grew  only  stronger  as  he  ob- 
served the  tendencies  working  in  other  Christian 
denominations.  He  was  never  a  controversial- 
ist, but  he  was  ready  to  avow  always,  and  to  de- 
fend, the  denominational  views  which  have  made 
for  Baptists  so  important  and  so  honorable  a 
history  in  the  religious  world.  In  fact  his 
"  Notes  on  the  Principles  and  Practices  of  Bap- 
tists "  sprang  from  the  fear  he  had,  lest  his  de- 
nomination was  swinging  somewhat  from  its  old 
moorings  in  some  matters  of  worship,  and  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  To  exalt  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  to  assert 
stoutly  the  independence  of  the  churches,  and 
thus  avoid  the  error  of  undue,  unwholesome 
bondage  to  Councils  and  Creeds,  to  insist  that 
the  Church  must  be  a  spiritual  body,  made  up 
only  of  regenerated  persons,  those  "  called  to  be 


AS  A  FHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    281 

saints,"  to  proclaim  a  complete  separation  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  State  as  did  Roger 
Williams,  to  emphasize  soul  liberty,  to  give  the 
Christian  ministry  its  fullest  scope  by  avoiding 
what  seemed  to  him  unwise  and  unscriptural  ed- 
ucational tests,  to  lay  more  stress  on  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  individual  Christian  and  less  upon 
the  machinery  of  ecclesiastical  organizations,  all 
these  elements  were  in  him  and  abounded.  He 
was  in  one  sense  the  stanchest  of  denomination- 
alists.  And  yet  he  had  among  his  closer  friends 
Episcopalians,  Quakers,  Congregationalists,  Pres- 
byterians, and  Unitarians.  The  reason  of  this  is 
not  far  to  seek.  His  denominationalism  was  so 
filled  and  mellowed,  so  guarded  and  exalted  by 
the  Christian  life  and  spirit,  that  it  made  him 
only  the  more  complete  Christian  man.  The 
same  convictions  which  led  him  to  choose  inde- 
pendency as  the  true  policy  of  churches  led  him 
to  insist  on  the  idea  of  individual  responsibility 
in  all  its  relations.  Individuality  was  with  Dr. 
Wayland  a  cardinal  principle  of  manhood.  His 
theory  of  education  was  the  development  of  this 
in  the  pupil.  He  believed  in  thinking  for  one's 
self,  and  not  in  having  other  people  do  the  think- 
ing for  us.  He  had  a  horror  of  sinking  indi- 
viduality in  great  political  parties  or  great  ec- 
clesiastical organizations,  be  they  Hierarchies  or 
Missionary  Boards.   To  make  the  educated  man, 


282  FRANCIS   WAYLAND. 

the  Christian  man,  count  for  most  in  the  work 
of  life,  he  must  be  made  to  feel  his  responsibil- 
ity, the  best  side  of  his  individuality  must  be 
developed,  —  this  with  him  was  an  axiom  in  ed- 
ucation. It  is  quite  possible  that  in  some  ways 
this  view  interfered  with  his  own  wider  develop- 
ment. It  may  have  led  him  to  rely  too  much 
on  his  own  independent  effort,  to  make  too  little 
of  what  other  men  had  done.  More  learning 
would  possibly  have  enhanced  his  influence. 
He  would  have  saved  time  by  looking  into  re- 
sults reached  by  other  laborers  in  the  field  rather 
than  by  slowly  working  them  out  for  himself. 
And  if  he  could  have  been  brought  into  a  closer 
association  with  other  scholars,  if  he  could  have 
been  in  more  direct  contact  with  the  learning  of 
books,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  his  mental 
power  would  have  been  none  the  less  effective, 
as  it  would  certainly  have  been  enriched.  But 
everything  in  life  goes  by  compensations,  and 
out  of  this  intense  individualism  grew  the  cour- 
age, intellectual  and  moral,  which  was  so  con- 
spicuous in  him.  If,  as  Wordsworth  said  of 
Milton, 

(His)  soul  was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart, 

he  never  lacked  the  boldness  to  stand  alone.  No 
man  ever  lived  who  had  more  the  courage  of  his 
opinions.     In  a  time  of  heated  discussion  on  the 


AS   A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    283 

temperance  reform,  he  could  take  a  position  on 
the  question  of  pledges  to  total  abstinence  which 
exposed  him  to  severe  animadversions  from  those 
whose  opinions  he  greatly  valued.  In  a  commu- 
nity, all  whose  material  interests  were  involved 
in  manufactures,  he  unhesitatingly  from  his  chair 
of  Political  Economy  taught  the  theory  of  Free 
Trade  in  its  fullest  extent.  While  the  whole 
country  was  enlisted  in  the  Mexican  war,  and 
the  spirit  of  American  patriotism  was  appealed 
to  for  its  support,  he  denounced  it  in  unmeasured 
terms.  When  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  was  made  a  burning  ques- 
tion in  the  North,  he  astonished  many  of  his 
friends,  who  had  known  his  determined  anti-slav- 
ery views,  by  holding  as  unwise  the  measure  then 
put  forward,  and  urged  the  reference  of  the 
question  to  the  Southern  States  for  decision 
rather  than  to  the  whole  country.  When  he 
thought  that  the  Baptist  churches  were  erring  in 
some  points  b}^  imitation  of  other  religious  bod- 
ies, he  was  not  hesitant  in  lifting  his  protest 
against  changes  which  threatened  in  his  view  the 
purity  and  power  of  Baptist  usages.  "I  be- 
lieve," he  said,i  "  the  Baptists  to  hold  a  distinct 
position  among  other  Protestant  sects  ;  that  they 
entertain  sentiments  which,  if  carried  into  prac- 
tice, must  render  them  somewhat  peculiar,  and 

1  Notes  on  Principles  and  Practices  of  Baptists,  p.  147. 


284  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

that  they  are  perfectly  capable  of  establishing 
their  own  usages,  and  of  adapting  their  mode  of 
worship  and  rules  of  discipline  to  the  principles 
which  they  believe.  They  need  borrow  from  no 
one.  They  have  no  occasion  to  hide  their  senti- 
ments or  blush  for  the  results  to  which  they  lead. 
Their  very  peculiarities  are  their  titles  to  distinc- 
tion, because  they  are  founded  on  principles 
which  are  essential  to  the  permanent  spirituality 
of  the  Church  of  Christ." 

These  are  but  the  more  salient  instances  of  a 
courage  which  was  displayed  in  his  administra- 
tion of  the  college,  in  his  views  on  education,  and 
in  numberless  occurrences  of  his  daily  life.  It 
was  both  an  intellectual  and  a  moral  trait.  It 
is  difficult  to  say  which  is  the  more  apparent. 
That  an  opinion  was  new  never  daunted  him. 
Thus  he  avowed  his  sympathy  with  Herbert 
Spencer's  views  on  education  at  a  time  when 
few  of  our  educators  were  ready  to  say  much  in 
their  favor.  He  was  equally  ready  to  follow  his 
opinions  to  all  their  logical  consequences.  His 
sermons  on  "  Obedience  to  the  Civil  Magis- 
trate "  ^  well  illustrated  this.  His  opinions  were 
never  hastily  formed,  but  once  formed,  he  never 
cared  much  to  qualify,  and  never  to  trim  them 
in  order  to  conciliate  other  men.  His  pupils 
will    all   remember   how   much   and    how    ear- 

1   University  Sermons,  pp.  253-293. 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    285 

nestly  he  taught  against  slavery  to  public  opinion. 
He  was  not  insensible  to  the  opinion  of  good 
men.  He  was  sensitive  to  it.  But  the  silence 
with  which  he  bore  all  attacks  upon  his  views 
was  the  silence,  not  of  policy,  nor  yet  of  vacilla- 
tion. It  was  the  silence  of  a  quiet  moral  courage 
trusting  to  time  and  experience  for  the  vindica- 
tion of  his  views. 

This  courage,  intellectual  and  moral,  was 
largely  rooted  in  his  love  for  truth.  This  he 
sedulously  cultivated  in  himself.  No  words  of 
Christ  affected  him  more  than  the  assurance, 
"  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free."  He  detested  shams  of  every 
sort,  superficiality  of  every  kind.  Not  to  be 
thorough  was  to  be  untrue.  Hence  he  sought  to 
impress  on  the  whole  course  of  university  in- 
struction that  its  chief  end  and  final  aim  was  to 
secure  thoroughness.  With  this  in  view  he  es- 
tablished that  analytical  method  in  the  lecture 
and  recitation  room  which  has  characterized  and 
still  characterizes  the  instruction  at  Brown  Uni- 
versity. He  was  not  so  ambitious  to  extend  the 
course  of  instruction  as  to  establish  this  founda- 
tion virtue  of  mental  training.  And  when,  as  in 
1850,  he  advocated  the  expansion  of  the  curricu- 
lum, he  felt  that  it  must  be  undertaken  only  in 
the  spirit  of  doing  thoroughly  whatever  was  to  be 
done.   What  the  scheme  of  education  outlined  in 


286  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

the  catalogue  promised,  that  must  be  performed. 
Thoroughness  was  truth,  superficiality  was  un- 
truth to  the  interests  involved. 

So  also  in  all  other  spheres,  politics,  religion, 
theology,  it  was  observable  that  names  had  little 
or  no  power  over  him.  As  this  love  of  truth 
kept  him  from  anything  like  partisanship,  so  it 
was  impossible  that  he  should  train  a  race  of  par- 
tisans. His  students  owed  him  more  for  the  in- 
fluence on  them  of  this  ruling  passion  in  his  life 
than  for  aught  else  they  gained  from  him.  It 
was  the  atmosphere  of  his  lecture  room  which 
they  breathed,  which  vitalized  their  intellectual 
being.  He  was  an  instructor,  as  we  have  seen,  of 
great  and  varied  powers.  But  it  was  more  than 
his  apt  and  powerful  teaching  which  made  that 
lecture  room  so  potent  an  educating  centre.  It 
was  the  simple,  honest,  whole-hearted  love  of 
truth  which  was  the  "hiding  of  his  power"  as 
an  educator.  Of  such  elements  was  the  intellec- 
tual and  moral  character  of  Dr.  Wayland  com- 
posed. Add  to  all  these  qualities  that  imperial 
presence,  the  massive  features,  the  resonant  voice, 
the  deep-set  eye,  looking  out  from  the  rugged 
brow,  the  majestic  port,  and  it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand the  sources  of  his  power  as  a  leader  in  re- 
ligious thought.  He  belongs  to  a  race  of  great 
college  presidents,  men  like  James  Walker,  of 


AS  A  PHILANTHROPIST  AND   CITIZEN.    287 

Harvard,  and  Theodore  Woolsey,  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity, and  Mark  Hopkins,  of  Williams  Col- 
lege. 

Than  they,  and  their  predecessors,  no  men  have 
done  more  for  the  interests  of  the  country.  The 
world  has  done  scant  justice  to  its  great  educa- 
tors. It  is  only  the  latest  of  English  historians  ^ 
who  has  had  the  insight  to  perceive  that  the  Uni- 
versities of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  the  work 
of  Erasmus  and  John  Colet  are,  as  factors  in 
the  making  of  England,  quite  as  potential  as 
statesmen  and  warriors.  The  historian  of  Amer- 
ica will  assuredly  take  care  that  the  work  of  her 
educators  shall  be  duly  chronicled.  And  what- 
ever be  the  future  development  of  the  higher 
education,  it  will  be  seen  that  such  men  as  have 
been  named  prepared  the  way  for  all  advance, 
and  that  Dr.  Wayland  was  the  foremost  man  in 
projecting  the  modern  changes  in  the  mode  of 
our  Higher  Education.  Other  men  have  entered 
into  his  labors,  have  fashioned  the  plans  more 
wisely  perhaps,  have  developed  the  ideas  cer- 
tainly with  more  completeness.  But  he  was  the 
pioneer,  and  blazed  the  path  to  the  higher  work 
of  to-day  in  our  colleges  and  universities.  His 
career  from  its  beginning  to  its  close  is  a  record 
of  hard,  unremitting,  broadening  work  as  Pastor 
^  J.  R.  Gbeen. 


288  FRANCIS  WAYLAND. 

and  Preacher,  Educator,  Author,  and  Philanthro- 
pist. Nothing  ever  checked  its  impetuous  onset. 
Nothing  diverted  its  steady  sweep.  Nothing 
dimmed  its  great  success.  And  when  the  end 
came,  it  came  only  as  the  end  comes  to  the  shock 
of  corn  fully  ripe. 


INDEX. 


Abercrombie,  Dr.,  87. 

Academy  at  Hopewell,  N.  J.,  3. 

Addresses,  78,  79,  104,  106,  112, 153, 
178. 

Albany,  8. 

Alexander,  Dr.  Archibald,  21. 

Alexander,  Dr.  J.  W.,  correspond- 
ence with,  182,  22G. 

American  Baptist  Magazine,  42. 

American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  46. 

American  Journal  of  Education,  176, 
177. 

American  Peace  Society,  146. 

American  Tract  Society,  49. 

Ancestry,  3. 

Anderson,  Rev.  Dr.,  208,  260. 

Andover,  faculty  of,  21  ;  life  in,  22, 
23 ;  influence  of,  on  Dr.  Wayland, 
30. 

Angell,  Pres.  James  B.,  191,  247. 

Annexation  of  Texas,  273. 

Anonymous  letters,  41. 

Anthony,  Henry  B.,  102. 

Anti-paeiobaptists,  59. 

Autislavery  agitation,  139,  209. 

Anxious  years,  79. 

Apostolic  ministry,  sermon  on,  226. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  191. 

Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  71,  235. 

Ava,  214,  218. 

Baldwin,  Dr.,  41,  42. 

Baptist  Foreign  Missionary  Society, 

sermon  before,  45. 
Baptist  Missionary  Union,  199. 
Baptist  Theological  Institute,  Wa- 

terville,  20. 
Baptists,  hard  treatment  of,  2  ;  fair 

opportunity  for,  2. 
Barnard,  Henry,  177. 
Barnes,  Daniel  H.,  12. 
Bartol,  Dr.,  144. 
Beck,  Prof.,  173. 
Bible,  early  stucly  of,  6. 
Bible,  Hebrew,  26. 


Bible  class,  19,  249. 

Bilney,  Richard,  8. 

Bingham,  Hiram,  22. 

Birthday,  sixty-fifth,  137. 

BoUes,  Dr.,  60. 

Boston,  ministry  in,  38  et  seq. ; 
churches  of,  40;  "North  End," 
40  ;  resignation  of  pastorate  by  Dr. 
Wayland,  54. 

Bradley,  Hon.  Chas.  S.,  117,  188. 

Brainard,  David,  letter  on,  156. 

Brown,  John,  145. 

Brown,  Nicholas,  66,  67. 

Brown  University,  founded,  3 ;  char- 
ter of,  59;  Dr.  Wayland  chosen 
president  of,  61 ;  begins  his  work 
at,  62  ;  condition  of  college,  63, 
64 ;  library  of,  66 ;  science  in,  67  ; 
reforms  in  discipline,  67-69;  ad- 
dresses to  students,  72;  changes 
in  Faculty  of,  74 ;  relations  to,  75, 
76  ;  decline  in  number  of  students, 
88 ;  Dr.  Wayland  resigns,  88  ;  re- 
organization of,  96-103 ;  introduc- 
tion of  elective  system,  103;  retire- 
ment of  Dr.  Wayland  from,  107. 

Buchanan,  Pres.,  144. 

Burns,  Anthony,  140. 

Burnt  Hills,  36. 

Burritt,  Eli,  14. 

Butler,  Bishop,  197- 

Butler  Hospital,  261. 

Caldwell,  Rev.  Dr.,  132. 

Calvinism,  views  of,  242. 

Cambridge,  Eng.,  85,  287. 

Canandaigua,  34. 

Carlyle,  14. 

Caswell,  Dr.  Alexis,  his  relation  to 
Dr.  Wayland,  74,  161;  takes  his 
place  as  president  during  the  Eu- 
ropean tour,  82  ;  resolutions  of- 
fered by,  at  the  meeting  of  citi- 
zens on  Sumner  outrage,  117  ;  his 
estimate  of  Dr.  Wayland 's  preacl:- 
ing,  129 ;  prayer  at  meeting  of  cit- 


290 


INDEX. 


izens  on  occasion  of  Dr.  Wayland's 
address  on  assassination  of  Pres. 
Lincoln,  152;  address  at  funeral 
of  Dr.  Wayland,  IGl. 

Chace,  Prof.  George  I.,  72,  74, 104, 
161. 

Chalmers,  Dr.  Thomas,  87 ;  recep- 
tion of  volume  on,  155. 

Channing,  Dr.,  213,  256. 

Charities,  local,  257. 

Chase,  Prof.  Ira,  21. 

Chatham,  Lord,  97. 

Chillingworth,  William,  243. 

Christian  character,  Dr.  "Wayland's, 
279. 

Christian  ministry,  6,  37 

Christian  Reflector,  263. 

Christian  Review,  271. 

Christian  work,  19, 

Civil  magistrates,  sermons  on  obe- 
dience to,  273. 

Colby  University,  3. 

Colet,  John,  287. 

Colleagues,  relation  to,  73. 

College,  customs  of,  63 ;  changes, 
65;  library,  66;  discipline,  69; 
devotional  exercisefl  in  chapel  of, 
244. 

College  of  New  Jersey,  236. 

Colored  church,  Sunday-school  of, 
on  Meeting  Street,  156. 

Columbian  College,  52. 

Commons  Hall,  72. 

Conference,  Professors',  22,  23. 

Congdon,  Gilbert,  268. 

Congregational  singing,  134. 

Congregationalists,  30,  62. 

Convicts,  19. 

Cornell  University,  119. 

Correspondence,  154. 

Cushing  Institute,  156,  179. 

Debts    of     the    Statep,    in    North 
•    American  Review,  271. 
De  Foe,  264. 

De  Lange,  Mordecai,  206. 
Dewey,  Dr.  Orville,  22. 
Dexter,  Dr.  Henry  M.,  246. 
Diman,  Prof.  J.  L.,  247,  248. 
Discourses,  Thoughts    on    Present 

Distress,  233. 
Dorr  "War,  sermons  suggested  by, 

270. 
Druses,  2C0. 

Duncan,  Alexander,  117. 
Dutchess  County  Academy,  11. 
Dvdght,  Rev.  Sereno  E.,  23. 

East  India  Company,  46. 
Edinburgh  Review,  46. 


Elective  study.  Dr.  Wayland  in  con- 
nection with,  175. 

Elective  system  adopted  by  corpora- 
tion of  Brown  University,  103. 

Eliot,  Pres.,  173. 

Eliot,  Dr.  W.  G.,206. 

English  Reformation,  8. 

Erasmus,  287. 

Erskine,  Lord,  262. 

Europe,  Dr.  Wayland  visits,  82 ;  mo- 
tive in  visiting,  82 ;  diary  of,  82 ; 
contact  with  dissenters,  83;  in- 
terest in  courts  of  justice,  84  ;  in 
scientific  associations,  84 ;  com- 
ments on  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
85,  86. 

Examination,  theological,  38. 

Examiner,  116,  221. 

Exegetical  study,  24. 

Federalists,  6,  269. 

Felton,  Prof.,  173. 

Fisher,  Prof.  G.  P.,  189,  246. 

risk.  Rev.  Pliny,  22, 

First  Baptist  Church,  Boston,  Dr. 
Wayland  called  to,  38 ;  ordained 
pastor  of,  39 ;  position  of,  39 ; 
anonymous  letters,  41 ;  proposed 
removal  of,  53  ;  resigns  pastorate 
of,  54  ;  Dr.  Wayland's  estimate  of 
his  ministry  there,  55,  57. 

First  Baptist  Church,  Providence, 
Dr.  Wayland  accepts  temporary 
pastorate  of,  122  ;  position  and  his- 
tory of,  124  ;  pastors  of,  124 ;  ser- 
mons in,  by  Dr.  Wayland,  128; 
plan  for  parish  work,  132 ;  funeral 
from,  160. 

Foreign  missions,  Dr.  Wayland's  in- 
terest in,  214,  215. 

Forsyth,  Hon.  J.,  78. 

Foster,  John,  Dr.  Wayland's  article 
on  letter  of,  on  future  punishment, 
156. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  46. 

Free  school  system,  77. 

Free  Trade,  Dr.  Wayland's  view  on, 
208. 

Fremont,  John  C,  142. 

Frome,  Somersetshire,  3. 

Fry,  Caroline,  262. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  140,  238,  274. 

Fuller,  Rev.  Andrew,  6,  16. 

Fuller  Dr.  R.,  debate  with,  255, 263, 
264. 

Gammell,  Prof.  William,  74. 
Gano,  Dr.  Stephen,  124. 
George  III.,  75. 
Goddard,  Prof.,  74. 


INDEX. 


291 


Granger,  Dr.  J.  N.,  120. 
Green,  J.  R.,  287. 
Guild,  Dr.  Reuben,  68. 
Gurney,  John  J.,  85. 

Hague,  Dr.,  124. 

Hale,  Moses,  14. 

Hall,  Rev.  Robert,  113. 

Hall,  Rhode  Island,  67. 

Hamilton,  Sir  "William,  87,  220. 

Hamilton  Literary  and  Theological 
Institute,  3. 

Hamlin,  Dr.  Cyrus,  199. 

Harvard  College,  40,  79,  173. 

Hawes,  Dr.  Joel,  22. 

Hebrew  Grammar,  26. 

Hedge,  Dr.,  117. 

Hodge,  Dr.  Charles,  23. 

Homiletic  training,  36. 

Hopkins,  Dr.  Mark,  286. 

Horror  of  bondage,  Dr.  Wayland's, 
275. 

Horticulture,  Dr.  Wayland's  fond- 
ness for,  115. 

Howard,  John,  262. 

Human  Responsibility,  Limitations 
of,  209,  226. 

Human  rights,  devotion  to  doctrine 
of,  151. 

Individual  responsibility,  281. 
Irish  famine,  260. 
Ives,  Moses  6.,  131. 

Jackson,  Dr.,  139. 

James,  John  Angell,  83. 

Jeter,  Dr.,  187. 

Jewett,  C.  C,  66. 

Judson,  Dr.  Adoniram  H.,  49,  106. 

Judson,  Mrs.  Ann  H.,  214. 

Judson,  Mrs.  E.  C,  214,  215. 

Keble,  33. 

Kent,  Chancellor,  198. 

Kingsley,  Prof.,  60. 

Labors,    Dr.    Wayland's,    outside, 

42. 
Latimer,  Hugh,  8. 
Lewis,  Hon.  Ellis,  219. 
Libraries,  Dr.  Wayland's  interest  in, 

178. 
Lincoln,   Abraham,   nomination  of, 

145 ;  assassination  of,  151. 
Lincoln,  Prof.  John  L.,  74. 
Lincoln,  Miss  Lucy  L.,  53. 
Livermore,  Rev.  A.  A.,  205,  206. 

Malcolm,  Rev.  Howard,  34. 
Manning,  Rev.  James,  61,  124. 


Manning  Hall,  66. 

Marriage,  Dr.  Wayland's,  53;  sec- 
ond, 81. 

Marti  neau.  Rev.  James,  200. 

Mason,  Lowell,  134. 

Massachusetts  legislature,  46. 

Maulmain,  215. 

Maxy,  Jonathan,  61,  124. 

McAuley,  Prof.,  27. 

McCosh,  Dr.,  174. 

Mcllvaine,  Bishop,  226. 

Membership,  Dr.  Wayland's,  of  Bap- 
tist Church,  18. 

Memoir  of  Dr.  Judson,  214,  215. 

Mental  sufferings,  16-18. 

Messer,  Dr.,  58,  60. 

Mexican  war,  273. 

Miller,  Samuel,  21. 

Ministry  of  the  Gospel,  Dr.  Way- 
land's  lecture  on,  57. 

Missionaries,  22. 

Moore,  Sarah,  mother  of  Dr.  Way- 
land,  4, 

Mother's  death,  80. 

Miiller,  George,  139,  262- 

Miiller,  Max,  50. 

Napoleon  I.,  262. 

National  Era,  140. 

National  University,  plan  for,  79. 

Neander,  Church  History,  22. 

Nebraska  bill,  274. 

Nettleton,  Dr.  A.,  as  a  revivalist, 
35,  36  ;  influence  of,  on  Dr.  Way- 
land,  35,  130. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  33. 

Newton,  6. 

Newton  Theological  Institute,  3. 

North  Burying  Ground,  161. 

Norwich,  Conn.,  free  library  at, 
178. 

Norwich,  Eng.,  birthplace  of  Sarah 
Moore  (Wayland),  8. 

Notes  and  Principles  of  Baptists,  44, 
116. 

Nott,  Dr.,  indebtedness  of  Dr.  Way- 
land  to,  13  ;  friendship  with,  32  ; 
homiletlcal  training  under,  36; 
advises  acceptance  of  Boston  pas- 
torate, 39 ;  offers  chair  of  moral 
philosophy  to  Dr.  Wayland,  54 ; 
renews  old  relations,  58;  corre- 
spondence as  to  resigning  presi- 
dency of  Brown  University,  89. 

"  Official  responsibility,"  Old  South 

Church,  Boston,  33,  37. 
Opie,  Mrs,  85. 
Oung-Pen-La,  218. 
Oxford  movement,  33. 


292 


INDEX. 


Paley,  "  Moral  Science,"  196,  200  ; 

disuse  of,  by  Dr.  Wayland,  197 ; 

grounds  of  disuse,  200 ;  theory  of 

virtue,  200,  201. 
Panoplist,  43. 

Paralysis,  symptoms  of,  138. 
Paris,  84. 

Pastoral  care  of  young  men,  246. 
Patterson,  Rev.  Robert,  124. 
Pattison,  Mark,  86. 
Payne,  Abram,  239. 
Pearce,  W.  W.,  104. 
Penitentiary,  19. 
Personal  courage,  282. 
"  Personal  liberty,"  202. 
Philadelphia,  theological  eemlnary 

at,  52. 
Philanthropy,  156. 
Pierce,  Hon.  E.  L.,  204. 
Pitt,  William,  75. 
Pledges,  Dr.   Wayland's  views  of, 

255. 
Political  Economy,  Elements  of,  207. 
Porter,  Dr.  Ebenezer,  21,  22. 
Postmaster,  blunder  of,  35. 
Potter,  Bp.  Alonzo,  33,  54. 
Poughkeepsie,  8,  11. 
Prayer,  faith  in,  149. 
Prayer,  tract  on,  148. 
Presidency    of    Brown   University, 

Dr.  Wayland  resigns,  88  ;  second 

resignation,  110-112. 
Princeton  College,  174. 
Princeton  Seminary,  21,  34. 
Principles  and  Practices  of  Baptist 

Churches,  221,  226. 
Prison  Discipline  Society,  Dr.  Way- 
land  president  of,  264. 
Providence  Aid  Society,  261. 
Providence  Athenaeum,  78,  178. 
Providence  County  Jail,  265. 
Providence  Reform  School,  251, 268. 
Public  school  system,  176. 
Pusey,  Dr.,  33. 

Quarterly  Review,  201. 

Religious  revival,  128. 
Reminiscences,  preface,  4. 
Republicans,  6,  269. 
Rhode  Island  school  system,  177. 
Ripley,  Prof.  Henry  J.,  22. 

Sage,  Mrs.  H.  S.,  married  to  Dr. 
Wayland,  81. 

Sandwich  Islands,  198. 

Saratoga  Springs,  8. 

Sartor  Resartus,  14. 

Schleusner's  New  Testament  Lexi- 
con, 26. 


Scientific  study,  interest  of  Dr. 
Wayland  in,  67. 

Scotland,  84. 

Sermons  to  the  Churches,  Dr.  Way- 
land's,  251  ;  Perils  of  Riches,  251. 

Sharp,  Dr.  Daniel,  pastor  of  Charles 
Street  Baptist  Church,  Boston,  7; 
friend  of  father  of  Dr.  Wayland, 
7  ;  preached  ordination  sermon  of 
Dr.  Wayland,  39  ;  urges  Dr.  Way- 
land's  acceptance  of  presidency 
of  Brown  University,  60. 

Smith,  Sydney,  11,  46,  50. 

Smithsonian  bequest,  78. 

Sparks,  President,  173,  174. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  171. 

Sprague,  William  B.,  34. 

Stanley,  Dean,  236. 

State  Prison,  265. 

Stillman,  Dr.,  37. 

Story,  Mr.  Justice,  245. 

Stow,  Dr.  Baron,  53. 

Stuart,  Prof.  Moses,  Dr.  Wayland's 
first  meeting  with,  23,  24;  He- 
brew Grammar,  26 ;  Dr.  Way- 
land's  estimation  of,  as  teacher, 
29 ;  urges  Dr.  Wayland  to  accept 
presidency  of  Brown  University, 
62. 

Sumner,  Charles,  116,  213,  274. 

Sumter,  Fort,  147. 

Swaim,  Dr.,  161. 

Syrian  Christians,  260,  261. 

Temperance,  views  of  Dr.  Wayland 
on,  209,  255. 

Text-books  by  Dr.  Wayland,  76 ;  re- 
vision of,  136. 

Thompson,  Dr.  J.  P.,  111. 

Tobey,  Dr.,  110. 

Toplady,  6. 

Torre^,  Dr.,  22. 

Triennial  Convention,  rescue  of, 
52. 

Troy,  8. 

Tutorship,  27. 

Union  College,  Dr.  Wayland  enters, 
13 ;  tutorship  at,  31,  32  ;  relations 
to  President  Nott,  32 ;  appointed 
Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in, 
58. 

Unitarianism,  39. 

University,  Cornell,  119. 

University  of  Vermont,  22. 

University  of  Virginia,  103. 

University  Sermons,  volume  of,  134, 
240. 

Voluntary  associations,  210. 


INDEX. 


293 


Walker,  Dr.  James,  286. 

Walks  of  Dr.  Wayland,  76. 

Wardlaw,  Dr.  Ralph,  49. 

Wayland,  Rev.  Daniel  S,,  uncle  of 
Dr.  Wayland,  4. 

Wayland,  Francis,  father  of  Dr, 
Wayland,  born  in  Frome,  Somer- 
setshire, 3;  emigration  to  New 
York,  4;  in  business,  4;  Christian 
character  of,  5,  6  ;  becomes  Bap- 
tist preacher,  7. 

Wayland,  Francis,  parents,  4;  in- 
fluence of  mother,  8-10  :  school 
life,  10  ;  enters  Union  College,  13  ; 
studies  medicine,  14  ;  intellectual 
transformation,  15 ;  early  theo- 
logical training,  16;  mental  suf- 
fering, 16-18;  change  of  plans, 
19 ;  enters  Andover  Seminary, 
20 ;  appointed  tutor  at  Union  Col- 
lege, 27  ;  accepts  call  to  First 
Baptist  Church  in  Boston,  39 ; 
marriage,  53;  becomes  president 
of  Brown  University,  62 ;  death 
of  his  wife,  79  ;  death  of  his  moth- 
er, 80 ;  second  marriage,  81  ;  visits 
Europe,  81 ;  resigns  presidency, 
88;  withdraws  resignation,  89; 
develops  new  sclieme  of  univer- 
sity education,  89-103 ;  resigns 
presidency,  107  ;  removes  to  new 
home,  115 ;  becomes  pastor  of 
First  Baptist  Church   in  Provi- 


dence, 122  ;  lays  down  temporary 
pastorate,  132  ;  shows  feebleness, 
138 ;  interest  in  antisiavery  ques- 
tions, 139  ;  address  on  occasion  of 
President  Lincoln's  assassination, 
153 ;  philanthropy,  156  ;  paralysis, 
159 ;  death  and  funeral  services, 
160. 

Wayland,  Francis,  and  H.  Lincoln, 
sons  of  Dr.  Wayland,  authors  of 
Memoir.    See  Preface,  p.  iii. 

Wayland,  Massachusetts,  Library, 
178. 

Wayland,  Sarah  (Moore),  born  at 
Norwich,  Eng.,  4  ;  her  story  of 
the  martyrs,  8 ;  her  early  training 
of  and  influence  on  Dr.  Wayland, 
8-10. 

Weariness,  126. 

Webster,  Daniel,  140. 

Westminster  Greek  Grammar,  11. 

Williams,  Roger,  61,  124,  270,  280. 

Wlsner,  Dr.  Benjamin  B.,  Dr.  Way- 
land's  triendship  witli,  33  ;  pastor 
Old  South  Church,  Boston,  37; 
proposes  Dr.  Wayland  for  pas- 
torate of  First  Baptist  Church, 
37. 

Withington,  Dr.,  242. 

Woods,  Dr.  Leonard,  21,  22. 

Woolsey,  President,  194,  287, 

Yale  CoUege,  119, 174,  236. 


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